IN  MEM0RIAM 


,-lAiN  LIBRARY-AGRICULTURE  DEI"! 


pS^aHffiiw 


THE 

UNFRIENDLY    ATTITUDE 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES 
GOVERNMENT 


TOWARDS  THE 


YUMA   VALLEY 

ARIZONA 


July,  1907 


MBRARY,  AGRICULTURE  DSf»t, 


THE 

UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE 


OF    THE 


oei tiers. — Amaavits  of  Settlers  and  Business  Men. — Letter 
from  President  of  Imperial  Water  Co.  No.l. — Severe  Criticisms  of  the  Recla- 
mation Officials  by  the  Los  Angeles  Daily  Times  and  the  Imperial  Daily 
Standard. — Also  by  D.  H.  Anderson,  editor  of  the  Irrigation  Age 
and  Secretary  of  the  National  Irrigation  Congress. — Miscel- 
laneous Articles. — Record  of  Flow  of  Colorado  River  for 
June  and  July  1906  and  1907— and  Lastly  the  Call 
for  an  Irrigation   Convention. 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

YUMA   VALLEY  CONSOLIDATED  WATER 
USERS  ASSOCIATION 


NOTE:    ONE  POINT  GAINED 


In  the  call  for  the  Irrigation  Convention,  published  on  pages  49-51  of  this  pamphlet, 
be  noticed  the  statement  that  the  Reclamation  Service  agreed  to  purchase  a  pumping  plant 
Yuma  for  the  sum  of  $6000 ;  that  they  took  a  deed  for  the  property  and  that  after  holding 
deed  for  two  years,  they  placed  the  same  on  record  without  making  payment  for  the  plant.     T 
then  asked  for  possession  of  the  property.    On  the  advice  of  the  company's  attorney  this  reqi 
was  not  complied  with.     This  information  was  received  from  such  attorney  on  the  evening  of 
day  that  the  request  was  denied,  and  is  therefore  reliable. 

About  two  weeks  after  the  publication  of  this  statement  by  the  issuance  of  the  call  for 
Irrigation  Convention,  and  after  this  pamphlet  hod  gone  to  press,  the  Reclamation  Service  j 
for  the  property. 

This  is  one  of  the  effects  of  the  movement  of  the  people  for  the  straightening  out  of 
crooked  work  of  the  Reclamation  Service.     One  point  has  been  gained. 

It  is  now  publicly  announced  that  the  Reclamation  Service  have  about  concluded  to  purch 
the  Farmers'  Gravity  Canal  System  and  pay  therefor  $17,000  for  property  that  cost  $75,000, ; 
for  which  the  Reclamation  Service  once  agreed  to  pay  the  sum  of  $30,000   and   then  after 
farmers  had  signed  up,  they  crawfished  out  of  the  agreement. 


THE 

UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE 


OF    THE 


UNITED   STATES  GOVERNMENT 


TOWARDS   THE 


YUMA    VALLEY 

ARIZONA 


Containing  Correspondence  with  Government  and  Reclamation  Officials. — Statements 
of  Representative  Settlers. — Affidavits  of  Settlers  and  Business  Men. — Letter 
from  President  of  Imperial  Water  Co.  No.l. — Severe  Criticisms  of  the  Recla- 
mation Officials  by  the  Los  Angeles  Daily  Times  and  the  Imperial  Daily 
Standard. — Also  by  D.  H.  Anderson,  editor  of  the  Irrigation  Age 
and  Secretary  of  the  National  Irrigation  Congress. — Miscel- 
laneous Articles. — Record  of  Flow  of  Colorado  River  for 
June  and  July  1906  and  1907 — and  Lastly  the  Call 
for  an  Irrigation   Convention. 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

YUMA   VALLEY  CONSOLIDATED  WATER 
USERS  ASSOCIATION 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Settlers  of  the  Yuma  Valley  vs.  Reclamation  Service 3 

Points  in  the  Controversy  to  be  remembered 7 

An  Appeal  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  for  Relief 9 

Reply  of  Hon.  E.  A.  Hitchcock  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 11 

Letter  of  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  to  L.  C.  Hill  Supervising  Engineer  of  Laguna  Dam  Project---  14 

Letter  of  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  to  President  Roosevelt 19 

Why  the  Canals  of  the  Yuma  Valley  have  not  been  operated 21 

Affidavits  of  Settlers  and  businss  men  of  Yuma  Valley 25 

Why  the  Imperial  valley  Settlers  oppose  the  Reclamation  Service  Officials — Letter  from  I.  W.  Gleason  President  of 

Imperial  Water  Company  No.  1 .28 

Oppressive  use  of  power — Irrigation  Age 30 

Laguna  Dam  Outlook — Imperial  Daily  Standard 33 

Reclamation  Service  scored  by  the  Los  Angeles  Times 35 

Miscellaneous  Articles — 

The  Scope  of  the  Reclamation  Service  work  as  provided  by  law 40 

The  Yuma  Cont  roversy - 40 

A  Brief  Review  of  the  Situation 41 

Settlers  Don't  Rush  In — Irrigation  Age 42 

Congressman  Smith  Speaks 42 

Irrigation  in  America 42 

Accused  of  Knocking — Imperial  Daily  Standard I"-' 

Vested  Rights 43 

Will  the  Laguna  Dam  Project  be  Completed 43 

Misrepresentations  by  the  Reclamation  Service  Officials 44 

Criticise  Reclamation  Service — -Imperial  Daily  Standard -  II 

Secretary  Garfields  Personal  Representative  visits  the  Imperial  Valley — Imperial  Daily  Standard        4"> 

Is  the  Reclamation  Act  Unconstitutional.- — Irrigation  Age 45 

General  H.  G.  Otis  on  the  Laguna  Dam 46 

The  Los  Angeles  Times  on  the  call  for  the  Irrigation  Convention 47 

Call  for  an  Irrigation  Convention 49 

The  Colorado  River  Flood  of  1907  a  Record  Breaker 52 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Scenes  in  Yuma  Valley — Contrast  between  five  years  ago  and  today — 

Indian  Corn  during  prosperous  times  of  1902  _.  (> 

Ranch  of  John  Gandolfo— Abandoned 6 

Intake  of  the  Ludy  Canal  in  1902 6 

Ranch  of  Giles  Cunningham — Once  valued  at  $75  an  acre — Sold  at  $25 6 

As  it  was  and  as  it  is — 

View  of  Ludy  Canal  1903  from  gate  No.  5 

Ranch  of  John  Gandolfo— Valued  at  $20,000— abandoned 10 

Imperial  Valley  vs.  Yuma  Valley — 

I.  W.  Gleason  in  Forresters  Blackberry  patch 

Ranch  of  S.  E.  Beach  below  Yuma  formerly  planted  to  wheat  barley  and  alfalfa — abandoned.-  13 

Prosperity  vs.  Stagnation — 

Imperial  family  and  blackberry  patch -   t     ^ 

Ranch  of  Archie  Jordan — Underpinning  to  house  washed  out 

Headquarters  of  Reclamation  Service  Officials  at  Yuma,  Arizona, — and  the  Settlers  Pay  the  Freight —  24 

Prosperity  vs  Stagnation — 

W.  E.  Wilsey's  Ranch  and  family  in  Imperial  Valley 

Ranch  of  O.  P.  Bondessen,  President  of  Yuma  County  Water  Users  Association  .._  34 

Imperial  Valley  vs.  Yuma  Valley — 

Two  year  old  grape  vine,  with  good  crop  and  a  boy 

Prof.  Yocum  waiting  for  Government  water 


Settlers  of  the  Yuma  Valley  vs.  Reclamation  Service 


The  treatment  of  the  settlers  of  the  Yuma  Valley  by  the  officials  of  the  United  States  Reclamation 
Service  in  charge  of  the  Laguna  Dam  Project,  has  been  so  unbusiness  like  and  so  unfair,  and  in  such 
utter  disregard  of  individual  rights,  that  it  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  entire  Pacific  Coast. 

A  presentation  of  the  case  to  the  public  has  become  an  absolute  necessity,  and  an  emphatic  pro- 
test regarding  such  treatment  to  the  authorities  at  Washington  by  the  irrigation  interests  of  the  coun- 
try at  large  seems  to  be  the  only  way  by  which  the  evils  complained  of  can  be  remedied. 

The  Reclamation  officials  are  appointed  by  those  higher  in  authority  and  it  is  but  natural  that  the 
heads  of  departments  should  place  confidence  in  their  subordinates  and  therefore  it  requires  a  very 
strong  case,  backed  by  undoubted  proofs  and  endorsed  by  an  array  of  influential  public  sentiment 
that  is  overwhelming  before  the  official  ear  of  those  high  in  authority  can  be  reached. 

A  brief  resume  of  the  situation  here  given  will  show  clearly  just  what  has  been  done  and  this 
will  be  followed  by  statements,  correspondence  and  affidavits  which  will  be  ample  proof  of  the  situa- 
tion as  herein  outlined. 


The  following  summary  of  the  case  will  give 
a  clear  statement  of  the  facts: 

First:  The  Reclamation  Service  soon  after 
its  organization  in  1902  began  an  investigation 
to  ascertain  what  could  be  done  to  utilize  the 
waters  of  the  Colorado  River  for  irrigation  pur- 
poses. 

Second:    They  discovered  that  all  the  natural 

flow7  of  the  river  had  been  appropriated  by  the 

California  Development  Company  and  the  Irri- 

"gation   Land  and   Improvement   Company,   and 

much  of  it  had  already  been  diverted  and  used 

for  a  beneficial  purpose  by  the  Imperial  Canal 

i  system  in  California  and  the  Ludy  Canal  System 

in  Arizona. 

Third:  That  there  was  an  abundance  of 
flood  water  during  the  summer  months  that 
could  be  stored  in  reservoirs  if  suitable  reservoir 
sites  could  be  found  and  utilized;  and  thus  all 
the  flow  of  the  Colorado  River  could  be  saved 
and  dyevoted  to  a  beneficial  use.  This  is  shown 
by  the  report  of  Arthur  P.  Davis,  who  made  the 
investigation  and  reported  to  his  superiors,  which 
report  was  published. 

Fourth:  Sites  were  selected  for  four  large 
reservoirs, — the  lower  one  of  which  would  be 
formed  by  building  a  dam  one  hundred  feet  high 
on  the  site  where  the  Laguna  Dam  is  now  being 
constructed.  This  reservoir  would  be  from  one 


to  ten  miles  wide  and  would  extend  up  the  river 
about  one  hundred  miles. 

Fifth:  It  was  found  on  further  examination 
that  there  was  no  bed  rock  available  at  the  sites 
of  either  one  of  the  four  proposed  dams  on  which 
to  make  a  foundation,  and  this  plan  had  to  be 
abandoned — although  it  was  one  of  great  mag- 
nitude contemplating  the  expenditure  in  time  of 
$22,000,000. 

Sixth:  Up  to  this  point  the  legality  of  the 
filing  made  by  the  California  Development  Com- 
pany or  the  Irrigation  Land  and  Improvement 
Company  had  not  been  called  in  question,  for  the 
Reclamation  Service  had  filed  on  4,000,000  inches 
of  the  flood  waters  of  the  River,  making  the  filings 
under  the  same  laws  on  which  prior  filings  had 
been  based. 

Seventh:  It  now  became  evident  to  Recla- 
mation Service  officials  that  one  or  both  of  the 
companies  named  must  be  deprived  of  its 
rights  and  be  financially  ruined  or  the  Recla- 
mation Service  must  retire  from  the  Colorado 
River. 

Eighth:  The  easy,  if  unscrupulous,  way  to 
accomplish  this  result  was  to  deny  them  the 
right  to  use  the  water,  injure  their  credit  and 
then  take  away  from  them  their  customers,  so 
that  the  Reclamation  Service  could  have  a  free 
hand  to  rule  or  ruin. 


.  ATTITUDE    OF    GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


Ninth:  It  was  then  that  the  Reclamation 
Service  officials  circulated  the  report  that  the 
Colorado  River  being  a  navigable  stream,  its 
waters  were  not  subject  to  the  appropriation  laws 
of  California  and  Arizona,  and  hence  the  settlers 
under  the  Imperial  Canal  in  California  and  the 
Ludy  Canal  in  Arizona  had  no  right  to  use  the 
water  from  those  systems,  and  that  they  could 
only  get  a  right  to  the  use  of  water  by  coming 
in  under  the  Reclamation  Service. 

Tenth:  Just  how  the  Reclamation  Service 
was  going  to  be  able  to  make  a  legal  appropria- 
tion on  the  waters  of  a  navigable  stream  under 
state  laws,  when  other  appropriations  under  the 
same  laws  were  not  valid  did  not  appear. 

Eleventh:  The  Reclamation  Service  not  only 
filed  on  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River  and 
then  declared  that  they  could  not  be  filed  upon, 
because  it  was  a  navigable  stream,  but  they 
planned  to  build  four  dams  across  the  river  at 
points  where  the  stream  was  most  likely  to  be 
navigated,  thus  entirely  destroying  what  little 
navigability  there  was  and  then,  to  cap  the  cli- 
max, the  Reclamation  Service  officials  made  ad- 
ditional filings  on  the  waters  of  the  stream  when 
it  was  decided  to  construct  the  Laguna  Dam. 

Twelfth:  The  Reclamation  Service  officials 
then  went  to  the  people  of  the  Imperial  Valley 
and  by  threats  of  taking  the  water  away  from 
them,  succeeded  temporarily  in  turning  public 
sentiment  away  from  the  Imperial  Canal  water 
system  to  the  Reclamation  system,  where  a 
title  to  the  water  could  be  secured. 

Thirteenth:  They  also  used  the  same  tactics 
with  the  settlers  in  the  Yuma  Valley,  but  more 
successfully;  for  there  they  promised  to  purchase 
two  of  the  three  irrigation  systems,  and  to  oper- 
ate the  systems  pending  the  construction  of  the 
Laguna  Proiect,  thus  furnishing  the  people  with 
water  from  the  old  systems  until  the  new  sys- 
tem should  be  completed. 

Fourteenth:  Under  these  promises  they  se- 
cured the  signatures  of  the  owners  of  about 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  land  to  be  irrigated,  but 
without  such  promises  those  signatures  could 
never  have  been  obtained. 

Fifteenth:  When  the  estimates  were  made 
for  the  construction  of  the  Laguna  Dam  System, 
J.  B.  Lippincott  and  his  associates  made  the 
figures  extremely  low,  either  from  engineering 
ignorance  or  so  as  not  to  discourage  the  settlers 
with  the  cost  per  acre  of  the  entire  SA'stem 
when  completed.  The  estimate  on  the  dam 
was  about  $900,000.  The  contractor,  after 
spending  $600,000,  gave  up  his  contract  with  a 


reported  loss  of  $320,000,  thus  making  the  dam 
cost  over  $900,000  ("including  the  loss )  at  a  time 
when  the  work  was  not  yet  half  done.  Thus  the 
dam  complete  will  have  cost  about  $2,000,000, 
which,  is  more  than  double  the  estimated  cost. 
If  other  estimates  on  .the  system  prove  to  be 
equally  low,  the  system  when  complete  will  have 
cost  $80  instead  of  $40  an  acre. 

Sixteenth:  The  officials  promised  to  purchase 
the  Farmers'  Canal  System  for  a  price  equal  to 
actual  cost  of  construction,  but  not  less  than 
$30,000  which  was  the  amount  of  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  company,  but  afterwards  declined 
to  either  purchase  the  system  or  operate  it. 

Seventeenth:  They  also  agreed  to  purchase 
the  pumping  plant  at  a  cost  of  $6,000.  The 
deed  to  the  property  was  executed  and  delivered 
and  after  it  had  been  held  by  the  officials  for 
two  years,  it  was  placed  on  record  and  afterwards 
they  demanded  possession  of  the  pumping  plant 
without  making  the  payment. 

Eighteenth:  Thus  by  misrepresentation  and 
false  promises  they  succeeded  in  getting  the 
land  signed  up  for  an  unknown  amount — at 
first  estimated  at  about  $40  an  acre,  but  now 
it  is  believed  that  the  amount  of  the  blanket 
mortgage  will  amount  to  twice  that  sum. 

Nineteenth:  Six  years  ago  the  lands  of  the 
valley  were  the  property  of  the  Government. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  old  canal  systems 
the  lands  were  taken  up  under  the  Homestead 
and  Desert  Land  Acts  until  practically  all  val- 
uable lands  of  the  valley  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  settlers  and  were  worth  from  $10  to 
$50  per  acre,  and  about  8,000  acres  were  brought 
under  cultivation. 

Twentieth:  The  Ludy  Canal  system  was  con- 
structed at  a  cost  of  more  than  $500,000.  It 
sold  water  rights  for  $10.  an  acre  and  furnished 
water  at  $3.  per  acre  per  annum.  The  affi- 
davits of  settlers  throughout  the  Valley  under 
that  system — extracts  from  many  of  which  are 
given  in  this  pamphlet— show  that  the  settlers 
had,  as  a  rule,  an  abundant  supply  of  water  and 
prosperity  was  the  rule,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions. 

Twenty:first:  Under  the  representations  of 
the  Reclamation  officials  the  settlers  had  no  right 
to  the  use  of  the  water  that  had  brought  this 
prosperity.  They  were  told  they  must  sign  up 
with  the  Reclamation  officials  by  a  given  date 
or  go  without  water  for  those  who  did  not  sign 
up  by  that  time  would  not  be  allowed  to  do  so 
later. 


SETTLERS  VS.  RECLAMATION  SERVICE 


Twenty-second:  The  Irrigation  Land  and  Im- 
provement Company,  the  owner  of  the  Ludy 
Canal,  was  a  solid  corporation  financially.  Its 
stock  sold  at  par  and  its  water  rights  passed 
current  in  the  Valley.  It  had  a  good  credit 
and  was  rated  high  in  the  Commercial  Agencies. 

Twenty-third:  One  serious  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  attacking  the  rights  of  the  Ludy  Canal 
System  to  the  use  of  the  water  of  the  Colorado 
River  was  found  in  the  fact  that  the  canals  of 
the  system  were  built  over  government  land; 
that  in  accordance  with  law  a  map  of  the  sys- 
tem was  filed  with  the  Land  Department  at 
Washington;  that  before  this  application  for 
right  of  way  over  Government  Lands  was 
acted  upon  by  the  Land  Department,  the 
Reclamation  Service  had  commenced  its 
operations  on  the  Colorado  River;  that  the 
Reclamation  officials  protested  against  allowing 
that  system  to  secure  a  sanction  of  its  plans  by 
the  Department  of  the  Interior,  as  such  an  ap- 
proval would  give  the  company  vested  rights 
in  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River  that  would 
prove  an  impediment  to  the  Reclamation  Service 
in  its  work,  but  it  appears  that  prior  to  this  time 
the  Canal  Company  had  so  far  completed  its 
system  and  had  delivered  water  to  so  many 
settlers  over  so  large  an  acreage  that  the  Govern- 
ment was  compelled  to  approve  the  maps  filed, 
even  over  the  protest  of  the  Reclamation  officials. 
That  approval  stands  today  as  a  strong  bulwark 
of  protection  to  the  company  that  is  threatened 
with  destruction. 

Twenty- fourth:  Through  false  representations 
the  settlers  under  that  system  were  forced  in 
self  defense — as  they  supposed — to  sign  up  with 
the  Reclamation  Service  and  thus  mortgage 
their  ranches  for  an  unknown  quantity,  or  as 
they  feared,  lose  their  all. 

Twenty-fifth:  Having  secured  all  the  signa- 
tures obtainable  the  officials  treacherously  de- 
clined to  carry  out  their  part  of  the  program 
by  purchasing  or  even  operating  any  one  of  the 
irrigation  systems  of  the  Valley. 

Twenty-sixth:  The  owners  of  the  irrigation 
systems  saw  no  reason  for  keeping  up  their 
canals  as  all  their  customers  had  been  taken 
from  them  and  there  was  nothing  to  work  for, 
and  without  further  growth  and  prospects  there 
was  no  reason  for  further  operating  the  canals 
as  it  must  be  done  at  a  loss  under  such  condi- 
tions. 

Twenty-seventh:  The  Farmers  system  became 
bankrupt  and  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver 
while  many  of  the  settlers  of  the  Valley  formed 


the  Consolidated  Water  Users'  Association  for 
self  protection  and  for  the  further  purpose  of 
leasing  and  operating  the  abanodned  canal 
systems.  This  association  made  a  contract  with 
the  Irrigation  Land  and  Improvement  Co.  for 
a  lease  of  the  Ludy  Canal  System  for  the  sum 
of  ten  dollars  per  year,  by  paying  for  all  repairs 
and  operating  expenses. 

Twenty-eighth:  Other  settlers  thought  they 
saw  nothing  for  them  in  the  future  and  so. they 
abandoned  their  ranches  and  moved  out,  many 
going  to  the  Imperial  Valley,  while  the  abandoned 
ranches  of  the  Valley  are  growing  up  to  brush 
again  and  lapsing  back  into  their  original  desert 
conditions. 

Twenty-ninth:  Yuma  Valley  four  years  ago 
was  prosperous  and  the  settlers  were  contented 
and  happy,  while  the  city  of  Yuma  was  pros- 
perous and  flourishing.  Today  many  of  the 
farms  are  being  deserted  and  the  remaining 
settlers  are  discouraged  while  fighting  for  their 
homes  with  little  hope  of  success. 

Thirtieth:  It  seems  evident  that  the  Recla- 
mation officials  do  not  have  any  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  the  Yuma 
Valley,  for  if  they  abandon  their  places  and  move 
out,  the  officials  think  that  a  new  set  of  settlers 
will  come  in  at  a  later  date  and  take  up  the 
abandoned  ranches  and  by  paying  the  Govern- 
ment the  cost  of  the  system  they  can  secure 
homes  at  the  expense  of  the  earlier  settlers  who 
lost  their  all — their  lost  ranches  at  one  time  being 
valued  at  from  $2000  to  $8000  for  quarter  sec- 
tion tracts. 

Thirty-first:  The  settlers  in  the  Imperial 
Valley  discovered  the  Yuma  program  and  the 
bad  faith  of  the  Reclamation  Service  just  in  time 
to  save  themselves  from  falling  into  the  same 
trap,  and  as  a  result,  the  picture  in  the  Imperial 
Valley  is  a  very  different  one,  for  prosperity  is 
found  at  all  points  and  real  estate  values  are 
rapidly  advancing,  while  the  ranches  of  that 
valley  are  wealth  producers. 

Thirty-second:  The  Pacific  Coast  has  been 
developed  so  far  by  private  enterprise.  South- 
ern California  in  a  third  of  a  century  has  in- 
creased its  population  from  32,000  to  over  500,- 
000,  and  the  basis  of  this  increase  has  been  irri- 
gation by  private  enterprise.  Now  that  the 
Government  has  entered  the  field,  the  manage- 
ment or  rather  the  mismanagement  of  the  gov- 
ernment officials  and  their  influence  with  pri- 
vate undertakings  has  been  such  that  private 
capital  as  applied  to  irrigation  enterprises  has 
been  driven  from  the  field  and  as  the  operations 


6 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


of  the  Reclamation  Service  are  limited   irrigation 
projects  will  languish  as  a  consequence.     There- 


fore   further    development     must     cease     unless 
there  is  a  change  of  the  present  management. 


This  pamphlet  is  issued  in  order  to  lay  before  the  public  and  the  authorities  at 
Washington  the  actual  condition  of  affairs  brought  on  by  the  mismanagement  and 
misrepresentations  of  the  Reclamation  Service  so  far  as  their  work  applies  to  the 
Colorado  River. 

We  also  insist  that  justice  to  the  Government  at  Washington,  justice  to  the  Rec= 
lamation  Service  officials  and  justice  to  the  settlers  who  are  losing  their  all  requires 
that  the  proper  authorities  at  Washington  shall  order  a  rigid  and  honest  investigation 
of  this  whole  subject,  that  the  mismanagement  may  be  corrected  and  that  the  homes 
of  the  pioneer  settlers  may  be  saved  to  those  who  have  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of 
the  day  in  order  to  open  up  and  develop  this  country,  which  at  one  time  was  sup= 
posed  to  be  so  worthless. 


Scenes  in  the   Yuma  Valley  —  Contrast  Between  Five 

Years  Ago  and  To-day 


Indian  corn  during  prosperous  times  of  1902 — 16  miles 
below  the  Ludy  Canal  heading 


Ranch  of  John  Gandolfo — Improved  by  Mr.  Wilkerson 
and  abandoned. 


Intake   of  the    Ludy   Canal  in  1902 — View    from  the 
Colorado  River. 


Ranch  of  Giles  Cunningham,  5  miles  south  of  Yuma — 
160  acres  valued  at  $75  an  acre  four  years  ago  but  re- 
cently sold  at  $25  an  acre. 


Points  in  the  Controversy  to  be  Remembered 


The  settlers  under  the  Laguna  Valley  Project  have  been  unfairly  treated  by  the  Reclamation 
officials.  The  same  is  true  regarding  the  settlers  in  the  Imperial  Valley.  These  troubles  are  care- 
fully analyzed  in  the  following  pages  of  this  pamphlet.  Following  are  the  points  at  issue  concisely 
stated: 


Fir.^t:  The  Reclamation  Act  of  June,  1902, 
was  intended  as  a  means  by  which  the  Govern- 
ment could  reclaim  its  own  worthless  desert 
lands  and  enable  American  citizens  to  make 
homes  thereon,  also  incidentally  to  assist  occas- 
ional settlers  who  might  have  located  on  such 
lands;  but  it  was  not  its  purpose  to  reconstruct 
arid  rebuild  irrigation  systems  that  were  success- 
fully supplying  water  to  the  lands  under  such 
systems. 

Second:  The  clear  intent  of  that  act  was  to 
create,  not  to  destroy.  Therefore  the  Recla- 
mation Service  having  in  charge  the  construction 
of  irrigation  systems  was  not  called  upon  to  de- 
stroy the  irrigation  systems  that  had  been  built 
by  the  settlers  or  by  Water  Corporations,  who 
had  spent  large  sums  of  money  in  thus  develop- 
ing the  country  and  making  it  possible  of  settle- 
ment, without  making  just  compensation  for 
the  property  thus  destroyed. 

Third:  The  Reclamation  officials  in  their 
attempt  to  get  a  foothold  on  the  Colorado  River 
for  the  purpose  of  constructing  an  irrigation 
system  that  should  utilize  all  the  available  water 
of  the  river  and  reclaim  every  available  acre  of 
arid  land  within  reach  of  such  irrigation  system, 
conducted  their  work  regardless  of  the  property 
rights  of  the  early  settlers  who  spent  years  of 
time  and  large  sums  of  money  in  order  to  convert 
the  uninhabitable  desert  into  fertile  fields  fit 
for  the  homes  of  American  citizens. 

Fourth:  In  pursuing  this  line  of  policy  they 
played  football  with  the  truth  and  represented 
or  misrepresented  facts  as  best  suited  their  pur- 


pose to  attain  the  ends  sought,  regardless  of 
its  effect  on  property  rights  or  the  homes  of  pio- 
neer settlers. 

Fifth:  As  evidence  of  this  they  filed  on  the 
waters  of  the  Colorado  river  under  the  laws  of 
the  State  of  California,  and  the  Territory  of  Ari- 
zona; then  they  declared  that  the  waters  of  that 
river  were  not  subject  to  the  appropriation  laws 
because  it  was  a  navigable  stream.  This  was  done 
in  order  to  bankrupt  the  corporations  that  had 
secured  through  the  appropriation  laws  prior 
rights  to  the  waters  of  the  river,  and  had  built 
extensive  irrigation  systems  that  were  the  foun- 
ation  of  prosperous  and  profitable  settlements 
were  previously  there  had  been  nothing  but  desert 
wastes.  This  forcing  the  water  company  out 
of  the  river  was  done  in  order  that  the  Reclama- 
tion officials  might  have  a  free  hand  to  build 
a  new  system.  It  was  done  in  utter  disregard 
of  truth,  and  in  violation  of  property  rights  and 
homes  that  were  being  destroyed.  They  declared 
that  the  Colorado  river  was  a  navigable  stream 
and  yet  went  to  work  deliberately  to  plan  for 
the  construction  of  dams  across  the  river  at  the 
very  points  where  the  river  was  most  navigable, 
and  then  they  filed  again  on  the  waters  of  the 
stream  in  violation  of  law  as  they  had  publicly 
construed  it. 

Sixth.  The  Reclamation  Service  forced  the 
California  Development  Company  to  secure  a 
concession  from  the  Mexican  Republic  in  order 
to  protect  its  contract  with  the  settlers  of  the 
Imperial  Valley  and  thus  save  the  homes  of  ten 
thousand  settlers  and  prevent  the  destruction 
of  $25,000,000.  worth  of  property. 


s 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


Seventh.  When  the  California  Development 
Company  made  its  connection  with  the  Colorado 
River  in  order  to  get  water  for  the  Imperial 
Valley  settlers  under  its  Mexican  concession, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  reports  circulated  by 
the  Reclamation  Service  officials  that  the  Com- 
pany had  no  legal  water  rights  had  so  affected 
its  credit  that  it  could  not  secure  the  funds 
with  which  to  build  the  head  gates,  and  hence 
the  runaway  Colorado  river,  for  which  the  Recla- 
mation Service  is  directly  responsible. 

Eighth.  The  Reclamation  officials  made  all 
kinds  of  promises  to  the  settlers  along  the  Colo- 
rado River  in  order  to  get  them  to  sign  up  under 
the  Laguna  Dam  Contract. 

Ninth.  They  agreed  to  purchase  the  Farmers 
Canal  system  at  Yuma  a  at  minimum  price  of 
$30,000. — that  sum  being  the  amount  of  in- 
debtedness of  the  Company,  which  amount  was 
guaranteed  by  individual  settlers  in  the  Valley 
— settlers  who  will  be  practically  bankrupted  if 
they  are  compelled  to  pay  this  guaranteed 
debt.  The  Farmers  Canal  belonged  to  the 
settlers  and  was  considered  worth  $75,000  on  a 
basis  of  actual  cost  of  construction.  Because  of 
that  agreemerr'to  purchase  the  Farmers  Canal 
System  the  settlers  under  that  system  signed  up 
their  property  and  the  Reclamation  service  then 
declined  to  either  purchase  the  plant  or  operate  it 
pending  the  construction  of  the  Laguna  Dam 
system. 

Tenth.  They  agreed  to  purchase  a  pumping 
plant  that  furnished  water  to  a  large  area  of  the 
valley  paying  therefor  the  sum  of  $6,000.  The 
owners  executed  a  deed  to  the  property  and  de- 
livered it  to  the  Reclamation  officials,  asking 
for  the  pay.  Those  officials  took  the  deed  and 
promised  to  pay.  After  holding  it  in  their 
possession  for  two  years  they  placed  the  deed 
on  record  and  soon  after  demanded  possession 
of  the  property,  without  first  paying  for  the  same. 
They  did  not  get  possession,  by  advice  of  attor- 
neys. 

Eleventh.  The  estimates  made  by  J.  B.  Lip- 
pincott  and  his  associates  as  to  the  cost  of  the 
Laguna  Dam  were  made  at  a  low  figure,  in  order 
to  mislead  the  settlers  who  were  eventually  to 
foot  the  bill.  Their  estimated  cost  was  about 
$900,000.  The  contractor,  after  doing  a  portion 
of  the  work,  surrendered  his  contract  at  a  re- 
ported loss  of  $320,000.  Up  to  that  date  the 
government  had  expended  $600,000  which  made 


the  dam  cost  $920,000  including  the  loss  of  con" 
tractors,  and  the  work  was  then  about  half  done* 
Thus  the  dam  when  completed  will  have  cost 
nearly  $2,000,000— more  than  double  the  esti- 
mated cost.  It  was  estimated  that  the  cost 
of  the  system  would  amount  to  about  $40  per 
acre,  on  the  lands  to  be  irrigated.  If  the  esti- 
mates made  on  the  construction  of  the  syphon 
under  the  Gila  River,  the  tunnel  through  the 
Yuma  Mesa  and  the  distributing  system  to  the 
87,600  acres  of  land  are  as  much  too  low  as  was 
that  on  the  cost  of  the  dam,  the  cost  will  amount 
to  $75  or  $80  per  acre.  And  the  settlers  pay 
the  freight. 

Twelfth.  As  a  result  of  the  misleading  esti- 
mates and  the  failure  to  keep  promises,  to  pur- 
chase and  operate,  existing  irrigation  systems, 
and  the  belief  that  the  lands  of  the  Valley  are 
mortgaged  to  the  Government  for  all  they  are 
worth,  the  settlers  are  moving  out  in  large  num- 
bers, leaving  their  homes  vacant  and  their  im- 
proved ranches  going  back  to  desert  conditions 
again. 

Thirteenth.  Evidently  the  recent  severe  criti- 
cisms of  the  Reclamation  Service  have  reached 
headquarters  at  Washington,  so  as  to  cause  a 
change  of  program  there.  The  new  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  Garfield,  has  sent  an  engineer 
to  the  Imperial  Valley  to  look  over  the  situation 
with  a  view  to  recommending  a  plan  whereby 
the  Government  may  obtain  control  of  the 
Colorado  River  independent  of  the  Reclamation 
Service.  It  is  said  that  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  has  decided  that  the  Imperial  Recla- 
mation project  is  one  of  such  magnitude  and  is 
so  far  advanced  as  to  be  beyond  the  province 
of  the  Reclamation  Service.  Also,  that  the 
Colorado  River  problem  is  too  important  and  of 
too  great  magnitude  to  be  left  in  the  hands  of 
private  corporations.  It  desires  to  have  the 
river  pass  into  government  control  without 
conflicting  with  the  rights  of  individuals  or  the 
filings  of  water  corporations  having  prior  rights 
in  the  river. 

These  are  the  main  points  that  are  elaborated 
in  this  pamphlet  and  to  which  the  attention  of 
the  justice  loving  public  is  directed.  It  is  to 
take  action  on  these  points  that  the  convention 
is  called  to  meet  in  Sacramento  in  August  next, 
just  prior  to  the  meeting  of  the  National  Irriga- 
tion Congress — a  call  for  which  convention  is 
found  in  this  pamphlet. 


An    Appeal  to   the   Secretary    of   the    Interior 

for  Relief 


On  the  19th  of  March,  1906,  307  citizens  of  the  Yuma  Valley  signed  the  following  letter  to  Hon. 
E.  A.  Hitchcock,  the  then  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  the  head  of  the  Department  under  which 
the  Reclamation  Service  was  operating.  In  this  letter  the  troubles  of  the  settlers  with  the  Reclama- 
tion officials  were  fully  set  forth. 


HON.  SECRETARY  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
MY  DEAR  SIR: 

We,  the  undersigned,  residents  and  citizens 
of  Yuma  county,  Arizona,  regardless  of  political 
affiliations,  representing  all  lines  of  industry, 
unite  in  memoralizing  the  Reclamation  De- 
partment: 

That  we  are  familiar  with  the  canal  systems 
of  the  Valley  about  Yurna  and  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  lands  under  them.  That 
the  country  in  general  was  thrifty  and  prosperous ; 
all  lines  of  business  were  in  good  condition  and 
the  lands  under  those  systems  were  being  de- 
veloped as  rapidly  as  the  financial  condition  of 
the  settler  would  permit,  until  the  Reclamation 
Department  appeared  and  presented  its  plans 
for  the  further  and  future  development  under 
Government  ownership  by  virtue  of  the  Re- 
clamation act.  We  believed  that  the  said  act 
was  broad  enough  and  that  the  Department 
was  fair  enough  to  fully  and  ably  protect  the 
pioneers  of  irrigation  who  were  the  educators, 
demonstrating  the  value  of  this  arid  region, 
and  that  these  pioneers  would  be  protected  with- 
in their  lawful,  just  and  equitable  rights. 

We  gave  this  Government  movement  our 
hearty  and  undivided  support,  believing  that 
all  systems  would  be  unified  under  one  great 
project  controlled  by  the  Government.  We  did 
not  thus  bind  ourselves,  however,  until  we  had 
requested  the  Department  to  take  up  and  oper- 
ate one  or  more  of  these  systems  and  supply  the 


land  under  them  with  water  during  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Government  works  or  system;  all  of 
which  we  were  led  to  believe  by  representatives 
of  the  Relcamation  Department,  would  be  done 
to  protect  our  homes,  as  the  water  right  contracts 
that  the  land  holders  were  required  by  the  Rec- 
lamation Department  to  sign,  absolutely  elimi- 
nated the  possibility  of  competition  with  the 
Reclamation  Department,  thus  destroying  the 
future  of  the  Valley  to  all  private  enterprises  for 
irrigation  purposes.  Since  the  land  has  been 
signed  up  to  the  Reclamation  Department,  the 
existing  canal  companies  have  given  their  time 
and  energies  to  the  adjustment  of  their  claims 
with  the  Department  and  not  to  the  furnishing 
of  water  to  the  lands  under  them.  As  there 
was  not  sufficient  lands  under  cultivation  to  be 
profitable  to  such  companies  to  furnish  water 
thereon  the  development  of  land  ceased. 
The  land  owner  would  not  buy  water  rights 
from  private  canal  systems  as  they  had  signed 
up  with  the  Reclamation  Department. 

The  foregoing  unfortunate  condition  has  not 
only  wrecked  the  canal  companies  of  the  valley 
but  unless  relief  is  had  by  opening  and  operating 
one  or  more  of  these  canals  by  the  Reclamation 
Department  our  homes  will  be  reduced  to  a 
desert  condition  before  the  completion  of  the 
Government  system. 

We  fully  realize  that  the  many  difficulties 
which  confront  the  earnest  and  most  praiseworthy 
efforts  of  the  Reclamation  Department,  even  with 
the  flblo  and  efficient  corps  of  engineers  and  em. 


10 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


ployes  in  its  service  connected  with  its  project 
here,  must  necessarily  defer  the  completion  of 
the  system  and  the  serving  of  water  thereunder 
for  a  great  length  of  time, — perhaps  several  years. 
We,  therefore,  most  earnestly  petition  your 
department  to  immediately  take  over  by  lease, 
purchase  or  otherwise  such  of  these  systems  as 
shall  adequately  supply  the  lands  of  the  Valley 
with  irrigating  waters  as  our  property  has  de- 
preciated in  value  in  a  larger  sum  than  the  neces- 
sary cost  of  taking  over  and  operating  one  or 
more  of  these  canals  in  the  interim.  Thus  the 
farmers  would  add  thousands  of  acres  to  the 
cultivated  area  and  be  prepared  to  use  the  water 
from  the  government  system  when  completed. 
Whereas,  if  no  relief  is  given  the  lands  heretofore 
cultivated  will  have  grown  up  again  to  brush, 
the  settlers  impoverished  and  compelled  to  seek 


employment  to  gain  a  livlihood  away  from  home, 
and  ultimately,  when  the  government  system  is 
completed,  the  settler  will  not  be  prepared  to  use 
the  water  therefrom  or  to  meet  the  obligations 
of  his  contract. 

We  therefore  pray  that  you  give  this  petition 
your  early  consideration  and  the  relief  asked  for. 
You  will  accomplish  by  this  course  the  harmon- 
izing of  all  interests,  which  will  permit  the 
government  to  go  ahead  with  its  good  work  un- 
obstructed, restoring  values  to  our  property, 
bringing  harmony  out  of  'discord,  establishing 
confidence  and  prosperity  and  repairing  the  in- 
juries unintentionally  inflicted. 

YUMA  VALLEY  CONSOLIDATED 
WATER  USERS   ASSOCIATION 

Yuma,   Ariz.,   March   19,   1906 


As  It  Was  and  As  It  Is 


View  of  the  Ludy  Canal  in  1903  from  gate  No.  5. 


Ranch  of  John   Gandolfo,  ten  miles    south  of  Yuma, 
320  acres  valued  at  $20,000 — now  abandoned. 


Reply  of  Hon.  E.  A.  Hitchcock,   Secretary   of  the  In- 
terior,   to   the    Settlers    of   the 
Yuma  Valley 


The  letter  to  Secretary  Hitchcock  was  forwarded  to  that  official  by  W.  H.  DeBerry,  the  Pre- 
sident of  the  Yuma  Valley  Water  Users  Association  at  that  time  through  Hon.  George  Turner  of 
Washington,  D.  C.,  who  was  in  position  to  properly  present  the  letter  and  obtain  a  reply.  Follow- 
ing letters  were  written  by  Secretary  Hitchcock  in  reply  to  that  letter. 


SECRETARY  HITCHCOCK'S  LETTER  TO  W.  H. 
DeBERRY 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

WASHINGTON. 
MR.  W.  H.  DEBERRY, 

PRESIDENT  CONSOLIDATED  WATER  USERS' 
ASSOCIATION,  YUMA,  ARIZ. 

SIR:  1  received  on  May  2,  1906,  from  Hon. 
George  Turner,  a  petition  signed  by  H.  Wupper- 
man  and  three  hundred  and  six  others,  residents 
and  citizens  of  Yuma  county,  Arizona,  forwarded 
by  you  to  Mr.  Turner  on  April  7,  1906,  to  be  pre- 
sented to  me  for  immediate  action  and  relief, 
and  in  this  connection  1  enclose  for  the  information 
of  the  petitioners  a  copy  of  my  letter  of  the  29th 
ultimo  to  Mr.  Turner,  with  copy  of  a  report  in 
the  matter  by  the  Director  of  the  Geological 
Survey  dated  May  15,  1906. 

Very  respectfully,  E.  A.  HITCHCOCK, 

Secretary 


SECRETARY      HITCHCOCK'S      LETTER      IN 

REPLY  TO  THE  SETTLERS  SENT 

TO  HON.  GEORGE  TURNER 

HON.  GEORGE  TURNER, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

SIR:  I  received  May  2,  1906,  by  your  trans- 
mission, the  petition  of  H.  Wupperman  and  three 
hundred  and  six  others,  residents  and  citizens 
of  Yuma  county,  Arizona,  transmitted  to  you 


April  7,  1906,  by  W.  H.  DeBerry,  President  of 
the  Consolidated  Water  Users'  Association  of 
Yuma  valley,  to  be  presented  to  me  for  immediate 
action  and  relief. 

The  petitioners  represent,  in  substance,  t'hat 
the  country  was  prosperous  and  the  water 
systems  were  being  developed  as  rapidly  as 
financial  conditions  permitted  until  the  Recla- 
mation Service  formed  plans  for  an  irrigation 
project  under  the  act  of  June  17,  1902,  (32  Stat. 
388),  that  they  gave  support  to  the  government 
project,  believing  the  irrigation  systems  would 
thereby  be  benefitted,  but  that  since  the  land 
owners  gave  their  adhesion  to  the  public  project 
the  existing  canal  companies  have  not  continued 
to  furnish  water  to  their  lands  because  there  was 
not  sufficient  cultivated  land  to  render  it  profit- 
able to  the  companies  and  development  ceased; 
that  these  conditions  have  wrecked  the  canal 
companies  and  are  liable  to  reduce  the  petitioners' 
homes  to  desert  conditions  before  the  completion 
of  the  government  system.  Upon  such  facts  the 
petitioners  ask  me — to  immediately  take  over 
by  lease,  purchase  or  otherwise,  such  of  these 
systems  as  shall  adequately  supply  the  lands  of 
the  valley  with  irrigating  waters  as  our  property 
had  depreciated  in  value  in  «  larger  sum  than  the 
necessary  cost  of  taking  over  and  operating  one 
or  more  of  these  canals  in  the  interim.  Thus 
the  farmers  would  add  thousands  of  acres  to  the 
cultivated  area  and  be  prepared  for  their  water 


12 


UXFKIKXDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


from  the  government  system  when  completed. 
Whereas,  if  no  relief  is  given  the  lands  heretofore 
cultivated  will  have  grown  up  again  to  brush/ 
the  settlers  impoverished  and  compelled  to  seek 
employment  to  gain  a  livlihood  away  from  home; 
ultimately,  when  the  government  system  is  com- 
pleted, the  settler  will  not  be  prepared  to  use  the 
water  therefrom  or  to  meet  the  obligations  of  his 
contract. 

We  therefore  pray  that  you  give  this  petition 
your  early  consideration  and  the  relief  asked  for. 
You  will  accomplish  by  this  course  the  harmon- 
izing of  all  interests,  which  will  permit  the  govern- 
ment to  go  ahead  with  its  good  work  unobstructed, 
restoring  values  to  our  property,  bringing  har- 
mony out  of  discord,  establishing  confidence  and 
prosperity  and  repairing  the  injuries  unintention- 
ally inflicted. 

The  petition  was  referred  May  8,  1906,  to  the 
director  of  the  geological  survey,  and  on  May  15, 
1906,  he  reported  that  the  Irrigation  Service  has 
always  sought  to  arrange  with  existing  canal 
companies  to  take  and  pay  a  ^reasonable  price  for 
any  part  of  their  existing  works  that  could  be 
utilized  in  systems  to  be  constructed  by  the 
government;  that  it  has  not  interfered  with  the 
operations  of  such  systems  and  has  encouraged 
their  owners  to  keep  them  in  operation.  The 
report,  a  copy  of  which  is  furnished  herewith 
sets  out  at  considerable  length  the  facts  as  to 
efficiency  and  defects  of  the  existing  systems  in 
the  Yuma  Valley,  and  states  that  had  the  systems 
been  in  condition  to  furnish  a  water  supply  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  owners  could  not  have 
operated  them  and  furnished  the  supply  as  well 
as  the  government.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is 
that  the  gravity  systems  were  physical  and  finan- 
cial failures  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  govern- 
ment operations.  The  physical  conditions  have 
been  so  aggravated  by  natural  causes  that  it  is 
now  apparent  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  fur- 
nishing an  adequate  water  supply  by  the  repair 
of  the  gravity  systems,  and  that  the  expenditure 
by  the  government  for  that  purpose  would  be 
wasted.  The  quickest  and  only  .efficient  means  of 
supplying  water  for  any  large  body  of  land  under 
present  conditions  is  by  the  completion  of  the 
Yuma  project. 

The  intention  of  the  officers  of  the  Reclama- 
tion Service  to  recommend  the  purchase  of  one 
or  more  of  the  existing  canal  systems  and  incor- 
porate them  in  the  government  project  has  not 
been  carried  out  because  of  the  impossibility, 
of  obtaining  reasonable  terms. 


The  experience  of  the  reclamation  service  in 
other  projects  shows  that  wherever  there  is  an 
existing  system  which  is%dequate  for  their  needs 
the  people  will  not  subscribe  to  the  Water  Users' 
Association,  even  though  the  conditions  of  the 
subscription  may  afford  some  advantage  in  ad- 
dition to  their  existing  rights.  This  is  the  cnsr 
with  the  Tempe  canal  system  in  the  Salt  River 
Valley;  also  under  the  canals  of  the  Payette- 
Boise  project;  those  in  the  Yakima  Valley,  and, 
in  fact,  in  every  project  where  there  is  an  irriga- 
tion, system  that  furnishes  sufficient  water  supply. 
The  operations  of  the  Reclamation  Service  are 
not  destructive  of  successful  enterprises.  It  is 
only  in  those  cases  where  service  is  inadequate 
tfoat  the  water  users  under  existing  canals  are 
willing  to  agree  to  take  water  from  the  Govern- 
ment project. 

The  wreckage  of  the  canal  systems  in  the 
Valley  was  due  wholly  to  conditions  over  which 
the  Government  had  no  control  and  was  not  in- 
fluenced in  any  way  by  the  operation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. As  above  stated,  the  Government 
as  a  competitor  would  not  have  injured  these 
systems  if  they  had  been  in  as  good  a  condition 
as  claimed. 

The  petitioners  indicate  no  irrigation  system 
in  the  Yuma  Valley  that  is  capable  of  being  suc- 
cessfully and  practically  operated  nor,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  reports  of  the  engineers  of  the 
Irrigation  Service  is  there  existing  any  such. 

If,  however,  such  does  exist,  and  the  owners 
of  such  system  will  neither  operate  it  nor  dispose 
of  it  at  a  value  at  which  the  United  States  can 
take  it,  the  remedy  of  its  patrons  whose  interests 
are  injuriously  affected  must  be  sought  in  the 
courts.  If  there  are  systems  capable  of  opera- 
tion, and  their  operation  is  essential  to  the  public 
welfare,  they  presumably  hold  their  properties 
and  franchises  under  obligations  to  operate  them, 
and  subject  to  control  of  the  courts  as  other 
public  utilities.  At  all  events,  no  power  of  that 
kind  is  vested  in  me. 

The  clear,  general  object  of  the  Irrigation  Act 
is  the  establishment  of  irrigation  systems  for 
the  entire  cost  of  which,  including  operation  and 
maintenance,  the  United  States  is  to  be  reim- 
bursed by  ratable  contributions  of  the  owners 
of  the  lands  reclaimed.  It  is  clearly  not  the 
intent  of  Congress,  and  is  not  within  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Irrigation  Act,  to  authorize  con- 
struction of  systems  the  cost  of  which  the  re- 
claimed lands  can  not  reimburse,  such  a  system 
is  not  within  the  meaning  of  the  Act,  practicable 


REPLY  OF  SECRETARY  OF  INTERIOR 


13 


The  power  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
to  acquire  existing  property  is  merely  incidental 
to  the  general  objects  and  purposes  of  the  Act. 
The  Secretary  is  not  given  power  to  acquire,  or 
to  take  possession  and  to  operate  for  temporary 
relief  of  its  patrons,  a  system  that  cannot  form 
and  be  utilized  as  a  part  of  a  system  constructed 
under  the  Act. 

The  petition  points  out  no  irrigation  system 
that  can  be  utilized  as  part  of  the  Yuma  project, 
at  a  cost  that,  included  with  the  cost  of  the  works 
to  be  constructed,  may  be  reimbursed  to  the 
Government  by  the  lands  benefited  nor  yet  any 


system  that  could  be  operated  if  it  were  acquired. 
It  therefore  presents  nothing  within  my  proper 
powers  under  the  Irrigation  Act. 

A  copy  of  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the 
Geological  Survey  and  of  this  letter  is  also  fur- 
nished to  W.  H.  DeBerry,  President  of  the  Con- 
solidated Water  Users'  Association,  of  Yuma 
valley,  for  information  of  the  petitioners. 

Very  respectfully, 

E.  A.  HITCHCOCK, 

SECRETARY. 
May  29,  1906. 


Imperial  Valley  vs.  Yuma  Valley 


I.  W.  Gleason  helping  himself  to  fruit  in    the    black- 
berry patch  on  ranch  of  E.  E.  Forrester,  five  miles  south- 
west of  Imperial. 


Ranch  of  S.  E.  Beach,  below  Yuma,  formerly  pknted 
to  wheat,  barley  and  alfalfa — abandoned. 


Letter  from  the  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association 

of  Yuma  Valley  to  Lewis  C.  Hill,  Supervising 

Engineer  of  Laguna  Dam  Project 


The  following  letter  written  by  authority  of  the  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  of  Yuma 
Valley,  Arizona,  was  sent  to  Mr.  Lewis  C.  Hill,  who  succeeded  Mr.  J.  B.  Lippincott  as  Supervising 
Engineer  of  the  Laguna  Dam  Project,  in  order  to  lay  before  him  the  facts  of  the  case  relative  to  the 
situation  developed  during  the  negotiations  carried  on  between  the  settlers  in  the  Yuma  Valley  and 
Mr.  Lippincott  while  he  was  representing  the  Government. 


MR.  LEWIS  C.  HILL, 

SUPERVISING  ENGINEER, 

PHOENIX,    ARIZONA. 
DEAR  SIR: 

We,  the  undersigned,  members  of  the  Board 
of  Water  Users'  of  the  Consolidated  Water 
Users'  Association  of  Yuma  Valley,  desire  to 
call  your  attention  to  a  petition  circulated  by 
and  under  our  authority,  and  signed  by  307 
citizens  of  Yuma  county,  memorializing  the 
honorable  secretary  of  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  "to  take  up  and  operate  a  sufficient 
number  of  canals  in  the  valley,  by  lease,  pur- 
chase or  otherwise,  to  supply  the  homes  and  home 
builders  with  water  for  irrigating  purposes  dur- 
ing the  construction  of  the  government  plant, 
to  the  end  that  they  should  not  be  driven  from 
their  homes,  as  the  result  of  the  unsettled  con- 
dition of  the  water  supply,  occasioned  by  the 
advent  of  the  Reclamation  Department  in  our 
midst. 

A  copy  of  the  petition  is  hereto  attached,  also 
the  endorsement  of  the  same  by  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  Yuma  County,  Arizona,  and 
also  the  resolution  adopted  by  this  Board  of  the 
Consolidated  Water  Users'  Association  of  Yuma 
Valley,  which  will  place  you  in  a  position  to  fully 
and  intelligently  consider  our  memorial  to  the 
Honorable  Secretary  and  give  it  your  favoral.le 
consideration  and  early  endorsement. 


Our  petition,  though  plain  and  pointed  in  re- 
lating the  history  of  the  Reclamation  Depart- 
ment during  the  time  of  its  operation  in  this  lo- 
cality, and  also  of  forecasting  the  financial  re- 
sult to  the  land  owner  and  citizen  of  this  section, 
has  been  phenomenally  and  scrupulously  cor- 
rect, as  deserted  homes  and  closed  business 
houses,  the  depreciation  of  farm  and  town  prop- 
erty, substantially  verifies. 

That  this  unnatural  condition  is  due  to  the 
unfair,  unbusinesslike  and  unjust  methods  pur- 
sued by  the  Honorable  J.  B.  Lippincott,  ex- 
supervising  engineer  of  the  Yuma  Project,  his 
superiors  or  subordinates,  cannot  be  success- 
fully denied.  And  instead  of  having  the  bene- 
ficiaries, or  those  who  should  be  beneficiaries  of 
this  project,  co-operating  with  your  Depart- 
ment, it  has  by  its  own  methods  destroyed  the 
unbounded  confidence  they  once  had;  while 
with  a  due  regard  for  business  fairness  and  justice 
and  respect  for  their  promises,  they  could  have 
held  and  maintained  this  high  appreciation, 
thereby  making  co-operation  mutually  pleasant 
and  profitable  to  the  citizens  of  this  locality  and 
your  Department. 

But  with  the  resignation  of  the  Hon.  J.  B. 
Lippincott  from  the  responsible  position  of 
supervising  engineer  and  the  appointment  of 
yourself  to  that  position,  comes  the  hope  that 
there  may  yet  be  a  solution  of  this  vexing  ques- 


CONSOLIDATED  WATER  USERS  ASSOCIATION  TO    L.   C.  HILL 


15 


tion  which  is  confronting  the  people  under  this 
project;  and  it  is  with  this  hope  that  we  are 
presenting  you  with  our  grievances,  to  the  end 
that  they  may  be  amicably  adjusted,  and  in  a 
limited  way,  the  many  and  varied  injustices 
repaired. 

We  hereto  attach  a  copy  of  the  Honorable 
Secretary's  reply  to  our  petition,  which  undoubt- 
edly has  its  origin  in  the  brilliant  but  deceptive 
intellect  of  ex-Supervising  Engineer  J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott,  whose  blighting  and  aggressive  hand  must 
have  dotted  every  "i"  and  crossed  every  "t" 
contained  in  its  verbiage,  as  we  who  are  familiar 
with  his  address,  either  oral  or  written,  detect 
in  this  as  in  others,  his  marked  success  in 
juggling  the  English  language  so  as  to  make  the 
truth  appear  a  falsehood  and  a  falsehood  the 
truth,  to  the  extent  of  deceiving  many  of  the  in- 
telligent who  are  not  familiar  with  the  facts 
and  his  methods. 

We  cannot  believe  that  the  Honorable  Secre- 
tary gave  our  petition  his  personal  considera- 
tion to  the  extent  so  important  a  matter  deserved, 
from  the  manner  of  reply  we  received  to  it.  He 
has  undoubtedly  based  his  conclusions  upon 
the  representations  of  his  subordinates,  who 
have  made  an  unscrupulous  and  relentless  war- 
fare upon  private  rights  whenever  in  conflict 
with,  or  in  the  way  of  the  development  of,  their 
plans,  and  without  regard  to  their  just  and  legal 
rights  and  with  the  strong  hand  of  this  great 
and  good  government,  over-riding  all  opposition 
to  their  narrow  views  and  protecting  themselves 
in  oppressing  the  homes  and  home  builders. 

Our  petition  was  signed  by  citizens  under 
this  project,  endorsed  by  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  Yuma  County,  the  Board  of  Consoli- 
dated Water  Users  of  Yuma  Valley,  and  sup- 
ported by  numerous  affidavits  from  among 
substantial  and  honorable  citizens  of  this  County, 
who  we  are  pleased  to  say  from  a  point  of  honor, 
integrity,  business  fairness  and  financial  ability, 
compare  favorably  with  the  most  honored  of 
your  Department,  and  who  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  witnessing  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  this  country  for  years  and  can  speak 
from  observation  and  experience  and  not  from 
information  and  conjecture. 

If  the  Reclamation  Department  will  not 
listen  to  the  above  witnesses,  they  would  not, 
in  the  language  of  the  inspired  writer,  "listen 
to  one  though  he  be  risen  from  the  dead."  What 
right  had  Mr.  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey 
to  advise  the  Honorable  Secretary  to  the  effect 
"that  the  irrigation  service  had  always  sought 


to  arrange  with  existing  canal  companies  to  take 
over  and  pay  a  reasonable  price  'for  any  part  of 
their  existing  works  that  could  be  utilized  in  a 
system  to  be  constructed  by  the  Government?" 
He  herein  has  expressed  his  own  ignorance  of 
the  facts,  or  his  intention  to  deceive  the  -Secre- 
tary, for  the  facts  are  that  the  Yuma  Valley 
Union  Land  and  Water  Company  consented 
to  and  signed  stipulations  and  an  agreement  to 
settle  with  your  department  for  their  canal. 
The  same  was  drawn  by  ex-Supervising  Engineer 
J.  B.  Lippincott  and  the  Water  Users  of  Yuma 
Valley  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  and  signed 
by  them  on  behalf  of  the  Reclamation  depart- 
ment, and  also  signed  by  the  proper  officers  of 
the  Yuma  Valley  Union  Land  and  Water  Com- 
pany. This  contract  was  inspected  and  ap- 
proved at  the  Reclamation  department's  head- 
quarters at  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  was  also  approved 
by  the  Honorable  Secretary;  and  Homer  Hamlin, 
resident  engineer  in  charge  at  Yuma  of  the  gov- 
ernment works,  authorized  the  Water  Users' 
Association  to  have  prepared  and  signed  the 
proper  conveyances  preparatory  to  turning  over 
the  property  to  the  government. 

The  conditions  of  the  sale  were  substantially 
as  follows: 

The  price  to  be  realized  by  the  Yuma  Valley 
Union  Land  and  Water  Company  was  not  to  be 
less  than  $30,000,  the  amount  of  its  interest 
bearing  indebtedness,  and  as  much  more  as  the 
actual  measurements  figured  at  a  reasonable 
cost  of  construction;  and  in  no  event  to  be  less 
than  $30,000,  this  amount  to  be  paid  on  or  im- 
mediately following  the  transfer  of  the  property, 
to  stop  interest  on  its  indebtedness,  the  balance, 
if  any,  to  be  paid  in  cash,  or  to  apply  the  same 
in  payment  of  the  assessments  levied  to  repay 
the  government  for  the  construction  of  the 
Yuma  project.  About  the  time  the  proper 
transfers  were  being  prepared,  ex-Supervising 
Engineer  J.  B.  Lippincott,  during  one  of  his 
trips  to  Yuma,  repudiated  the  entire  arrange- 
ment, denying  the  existence  of  any  stipulation 
in  the  matter,  although  his  name  was  attached 
to  it.  It  does  look  as  if  Mr.  Director  was  either 
ignorant  or  deceitful  in  this  matter.  There 
have  been  repeated  efforts  by  the  above  company 
to  reach  a  settlement  of  their  interests,  but 
without  any  results. 

With  this  standard  of  business  integrity, 
honor  and  justice,  can  it  be  strange  that  there 
has  been  no  settlement  of  canal  interests  under 
the  Yuma  project? 


16 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


And  by  what  process  of  business  reasoning 
does  Mr.  Director  presume  that  any  canal  com- 
pany would  be  expected  to  willingly  sell  a  por- 
tion of  its  system  at  cost  of  construction  and 
abandon  the  remainder  with  such  a  loss  as  would 
necessarily  follow  under  the  conditions  of  the 
contract  that  the  land  owners  were  required 
to  sign  under  this  project? 

Such  methods  are  arbitrary  and  tyranical, 
and  would  not  be  tolerated  in  our  courts  be- 
tween private  individuals  or  corporations.  Is 
our  government  to  become  competitor  in  busi- 
ness affairs  with  such  wholesale  confiscation  of 
private  property  and  disregard  of  individual 
rights?  This  is  the  position  of  your  department. 
Mr.  Director  is  inconsistent  when  he  says  he  has 
encouraged  the  owners  to  keep  their  canals  in 
operation,  and  in  the  very  next  paragraph  de- 
clares them  to  be  a  physical  and  financial  fail- 
ure. Now  if  the  latter  is  true,  is  not  his  recom- 
mendation ridiculous?  The  only  encouragement 
the  canals  received  from  your  department  to 
keep  them  open  was  their  threats  to  close  them, 
which  caused  a  vigilant  watch  on  the  part  of 
the  canal  company. 

The  simple  plain  facts  are  stated  in  our  pe- 
tition, showing  why  the  canal  companies  of  the 
valley  are  not  operating  their  system.  What 
moral  or  legal  right  has  he  to  encourage  the 
canal  companies  to  keep  them  open  and  serve 
our  homes  with  water  when  his  department  has 
destroyed  all  possibility  of  past,  or  hope  for 
future  reward?  And  we  divorced  ourselves 
from  every  moral,  and  we  believe  every  legal 
right  to  look  to  them  for  future  delivery  of  water 
after  signing  the  land  under  your  contracts. 
We  exchanged  the  obligation  they  owed  us  and 
were  faithfully  performing,  for  the  larger  and 
more  extensive,  and  we  believed  more  economical 
project  of  your  department,  in  order  to  thereby 
unite  divided  energies,  and  with  its  promise  to 
operate  these  systems  in  the  interest  of  the 
home  builders  of  the  valley  during  the  con- 
struction of  the  government  system,  which  is 
all  that  we  are  asking  for  at  their  hands. 

What  right  has  Mr.  Director  to  say  that  the 
canal  systems  of  the  valley  were  a  physical  and 
financial  failure,  when  at  least  one  of  these  com- 
panies was  thoroughly  satisfied  with  its  invest- 
ment, and  had  always  met  and  was  prepared  to 
meet  the  rapid  growth  and  development  of  the 
land  under  it?  These  facts  were  stated  in  our 
petition,  fully  substantiated  by  numerous  affi- 
davits from  our  best  citizens,  and  only  to  the 
end  that  the  truth  might  be  known  and  justice 


reached.  Yet  he  stated  they  were  a  physical 
and  financial  failure  and  has  cast  a  shadow  over 
the  honor  and  integrity  of  our  citizens  which 
merits  their  just  indignation  and  can  only  be 
excused  by  his  ignorance  or  stupidity. 

The  fact  is,  this  Association  has  leased  the 
Gravity  canals  of  the  valley  without  money  and 
without  price,  and  operated  them  last  season, 
not  as  a  matter  of  choice,  but  to  protect  our 
homes  from  the  encroachment  of  the  desert  and 
from  the  result  of  your  department's  broken 
covenants  with  the  people.  We  repaired  the 
Irrigation  Land  &  Improvement  company's 
canal,  and  operated  and  filled  the  gravity  canals 
from  it  at  a  cost  last  season  of  about  $2,000, 
until  July  7,  and  with  a  comparatively  small 
additional  sum,  aided  with  proper  machinery, 
would  have  furnished  an  ample  supply. 

This  is  the  summing  of  "the  physical  condi- 
ditions  from  natural  causes,"  and  "the  im- 
possibility from  its  results,  the  sand  bars,  etc., 
from  the  floods  of  unprecedented  volume  of 
recent  date,"  and  shows  conclusively  that  your 
department  has  magnified  the  obstacles  and  de- 
fects of  these  canals  with  the  same  disregard 
for  fairness,  as  they  denied  their  merit. 

You  may*  ask,  "Why  do  you  not  willingly 
operate  these  canals?"  Because  our  homes 
require  our  resources  and  because  it  was  no  part 
of  our  agreement  with  your  department. 

When  we  signed  our  land  under  your  contracts 
we  were  supposed  to  return  to  our  homes  and  be- 
come the  consumers  of  water,  and  not  the  pro- 
ducers and  deliverers,  and  your  department's 
violation  of  its  promise  has  brought  want,  pov- 
erty and  destruction  of  property  in  our  midst, 
and  justly  merits  the  indignation  of  the  people. 

The  arbitration  commission  referred  to  by  the 
Director  appointed  by  his  department  and  in 
its  employ,  of  whom  J.  B.  Lippincott  was  the 
dominating  spirit,  moved  in  the  sphere  of  dic- 
tators and  not  arbitrators,  and  would  remind 
one  of  the  trial  of  Emmet,  for  while  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  hearing  conflicting  testimony  was 
being  offered  respecting  the  conditions  of  the 
Irrigation,  Land  &  Improvement  Company's 
canal,  the  attorneys  for  said  company  requested 
the  commission  to  make  a  personal  inspection 
of  that  portion  in  dispute,  which  was  only  four 
to  six  miles  distant  and  could  have  been  accom- 
plished in  a  short  time,  but  they  replied  that 
they  were  thoroughly  advised  as  to  the  condi- 
tions that  existed.  Why  then  the  use  of  an  ar- 
bitration commission,  if  it  was  not  to  satisfy 
formality  and  insult  justice?  Why  this  com-* 


CONSOLIDATED  WATER  USERS  ASSOCIATION  TO    L.  C.  HILL 


17 


mission  from  among  its  employes,  and  not  se- 
lected from  disinterested  business  men?  They 
were  interested  parties  to  the  cause,  the  paid 
advisers  of  the  department,  and  had  undoubtedly 
arrived  at  a  verdict  before  the  commission  con- 
vened. Therefore,  what  assurance  can  you  offer 
that  if  an  agreement  had  been  obtained  from 
the  result  of  the  commission,  that  it  would  have 
been  kept  any  more  sacred  than  the  one  they 
violated  with  the  Yuma  Valley  Union  Land  and 
Water  Co.  with  such  profound  indifference. 
These  companies  have  sought  every  available 
opportunity  to  settle  differences  with  your  de- 
partment according  to  business  methods.  Of 
what  significance  a  few  paltry  dollars  when 
bought  at  such  a  price,  and  when  money  is  being 
spent  so  lavishly  in  other  directions — but  not  a 
dollar  to  supply  our  homes  with  water,  the  pre- 
sumed end  of  all  your  efforts.  And  if  our  lands 
have  these  bills  to  pay,  our  voice  should  have 
something  to  say  about  its  distribution,  yet  it  is 
not  respected  in  their  council. 

Mr.  Director  labors  hard  to  shift  the  res- 
ponsibility of  these  deplorable  conditions  to 
natural  causes  occasioned  by  overflows,  but 
they  become  insignificant  in  their  effects  when 
compared  with  the  broken  covenants  of  his  de- 
partment. 

While  the  canals  are  in  need  of  repair  and 
cleaning,  they,  as  roads  for  a  flow  of  water,  are 
not  as  badly  obstructed  as  the  avenues  of  justice 
and  fairness  through  his  department.  The  Di- 
rector in  relating  the  facts  regarding  the  recent 
disaster  of  the  California  Development  Co.  with 
the  Colorado  river  and  the  Salton  sea,  did  not 
relate  all  the  facts,  and  this  neglect  must  have 
deceived  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior. While  it  is  a  fact  that  the  bed  of  the 
river  was  lowered  as  related,  it  is  also  a  fact 
that  during  the  summer  period  the  minimum 
flow  of  the  river  was  nearly  or  quite  double  its 
flow  of  former  years,  thereby  causing  but  little 
difference  in  the  surface  grade  of  the  water  at 
the  Irrigation  Land  &  Improvement  Company's 
heading,  and  during  these  impractical  times  re- 
lated, commencing  with  March  17  and  ending 
July  7,  our  Association  successfully  operated  the 
gravity  canals  of  the  valley. 

Now,  he  did  not  advise  the  Honorable  Secre- 
tary of  this  fact.  Put  up  the  wires  and  let  the 
full  light  of  truth  and  intelligent  information 
light  up  the  befogged  minds  of  the  heads  of  your 
department  that  they  may  act  with  intelligence 
and  fairness. 


Now,  if  this  little  Association  whose  success 
has  been  beneath  the  notice  of  your  department, 
only  as  an  organ  of  the  Irrigation  Land  and 
Improvement  Co.,  did  hold  water  during  such  a 
trying  period,  should  not  your  department,  with 
its  vast  resources,  modern  appliances  and  skilled 
engineers,  accomplish  a  great  success,  and  es- 
pecially so  since  the  California  Development 
Company's  canal  is  under  control  and  the  river 
is  on  its  natural  course  to  the  gulf? 

And  if  you  only  accomplish  the  same  success 
as  your  predecessors  whom  you  have  declared 
a  physical  failure,  we  will  willingly  and  truth- 
fully declare  your  efforts  a  success,  for  our  fields 
will  be  green  and  our  larders  will  be  filled. 

Mr  Director  in  his  letter  to  the  Honorable 
Secretary,  of  May  15,  1906,  advises  him  on  page 
9,  that  "the  quickest  and  most  efficient  means 
of  supplying  water  for  any  large  body  of  land 
under  present  conditions  is  by  completing  the 
government  project.  Now  these  were  not  the 
recommendations  at  the  time  of  our  adhesion 
to  your  contracts,  but  the  requests  of  our  petition 
were  a  direct  understanding  and  pledge  on  the 
part  of  the  representatives  of  your  department. 
And  in  the  very  next  paragraph  of  his  letter 
he  attempts  to  excuse  himself  by  stating  that  the 
reason  that  the  existing  canals  had  not  been  in- 
corporated into  the  government  project  was  be- 
cause of  the  impossibility  to  secure  them  on 
reasonable  terms.  This  admission  destroys  the 
former  "physical  impossibility"  argument,  which 
we  have  thoroughly  demonstrated  by  our  associa- 
tion in  opening  and  operating  these  canals,  and 
it  resolves  itself  into  a  purely  money  proposi- 
tion, and  the  Yuma  Valley  Union  Land  and 
Water  Company  had  a  stipulation  as  to  price. 

How  are  you  to  reach  conclusions  with  such 
an  ill  advised  department,  and  especially  when 
they  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  others  than  their  employes? 

Now  the  director  in  his  summary  states  that 
it  is  the  "understanding  of  this  office  that  this 
Association  of  Consolidated  Water  Users  was 
organized  for  the  specific  purpose  of  urging  upon 
the  government  the  purchase  of  the  property 
of  the  irrigation  Land  and  Improvement  Com- 
pany." We  never  asked  your  department  to 
buy  the  property  of  the  Irrigation,  Land  and  Im- 
provement Company,  nor  any  other  company. 
We  did  not  wish  to  usurp  the  authority  nor  invade 
the  domain  of  the  engineers  of  your  department 
by  making  a  recommendation  of  either  of  these 
canals,  but  simply  requested  you  to  take  over 
and  operate  one  or  more  of  these  canals  by  lease, 
purchase  or  otherwise,  that  water  might  reach 


18 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS   YUMA   VALLEY 


our  parched  and  impoverished  homes.  We  have 
difficulties  enough  to  overcome,  contending  with 
poverty,  obstacles  of  nature  and  the  arid  condition 
of  our  soil,  without  any  stumbling  blocks  being 
placed  in  our  way  by  such  malicious  information. 
Moreover  this  accusation  is  as  unfair  as  it  is 
unbecoming.  The  sole  purpose  of  our  organiza- 
tion was  simply  to  supply  the  homes  of  the  valley 
with  water,  which  became  necessary  by  your 
department's  violation  of  its  agreement  with  the 
people.  Our  association  is  composed  entirely 
of  water  users  under  your  project,  and  most  of  us 
were  among  the  champions  of  your  cause.  Ex- 
amine your  records,  they  will  show  who  we  are. 
We  are  having  trouble  enough  of  our  own  with 
your  elastic  department,  without  championing 
the  cause  of  a  corporation  that  we  believe  is  more 
able  to  cope  with  the  unjust  methods  of  your 
department  than  we  are.  We  did  send  our  me- 
morial to  ex-Senator  Turner  of  Spokane,  Wash., 
in  care  of  Happy  and  Hindman,  having  confidence 
in  their  honor  and  integrity  to  punctually  for- 
ward it  to  his  address  in  Washington,  D.  C.  also 
in  Turner's  ability  to  properly  and  fairly  present 
the  same  to  the  honorable  secretary,  and  your 
reply  is  ample  evidence  to  our  minds  that  we 
were  not  mistaken.  But  if  this  charge  is  to  again 
kindle  into  a  flame  the  discord  of  local  contention 
in  our  midst,  it  is  mistaken.  Your  department 
championed  the  cause  of  the  home  and  home 
builder  while  asking  us  to  adhere  to  your  con- 
tracts, and  designated  the  canal  companies  as 
the  water  lords  and  barons  whose  only  object 
was  to  exploit  the  products  of  our  lands  to  their 
own  selfish  ends.  But  for  business  fairness  and 
integrity  in  their  capacity  as  public  servants,  they 
have  shown  more  regard  for  justice  than  has 
developed  in  your  department  up  to  this  date,  to 
whose  generosity  we  appealed  for  the  use  of  their 
canals  to  tide  us  over  the  breach  occasioned  by 
your  broken  contract.  No  chance  for  your  fire- 
brand here;  the  fuel  has  all  been  consumed.  And 
we  all  realize  that  we  have  in  your  department  the 
same  domineering  and  autocratic  spirit  to  con- 
tend with  that  the  Wandering  Jew,  an  humble 
peasant,  had  in  the  frozen  regions  of  the  Czar, 
and  yet  we  are  proud  to  say  the  cry  of  our  citizens 
brings  to  their  aid  the  combined  power  of  army 
and  navy  to  protect  their  property  and  rights. 
Are  their  rights  any  more  sacred  than  ours  who 
have  cast  our  lot  upon  our  own  soil,  beneath  our 
clear  sky  and  within  the  folds  of  the  stars  and 
stripes,  the  emblem  of  justic  and  equality?  Why 
then  these  strange  conditions  and  this  exploita- 
tion of  our  rights  and  destruction  of  our  property 


by  a  branch  of  this  great  government  if  not  the  re- 
sult of  ill  advice  to  the  head  of  your  department? 

With  these  observations  occasioned  by  your 
department's  methods,  at  what  distant  period 
in  the  process  of  evolution  can  we  hope  to  wit- 
ness the  completion  of  the  Yuma  project,  and 
when  completed,  is  there  any  assurance  that  it 
will  be  any  more  proficient  and  economical  than 
the  corporations  we  have  abandoned?  Judg- 
ing from  the  manner  in  which  your  depart- 
ment has  kept  and  performed  its  obligations  in 
the  past,  this  question  brings  grave  doubts  to 
the  most  optimistic. 

The  speculators  are  here  with  their  gold,  who 
are  ready  and  willing  to  await  your  tardy  meth- 
ods for  returns,  purchasing  the  homes  of  our 
discouraged  ani  impoverished  neighbors  at  one- 
half  the  price  they  were  worth  at  the  time  your 
department  entered  the  field. 

Mr.  Director  tries  to  console  us  by  referring 
to  the  amicable  relations  of  his  department 
under  other  projects.  This  does  not  inspire 
our  jealousy,  but  regret  that  the  same  happy 
condition  does  not  exist  under  this  project. 
Let  the  honorable  secretary  turn  his  searching 
eye  and  purifying  influence  upon  this  project  and 
see  if  he  cannot  find  the  cause  of  this  unhappy 
condition  in  his  own  department. 

Mr.  Hill,  we  regret  very  much  that  such  a 
pointed  review  of  the  honorable  secretary's 
letter  in  reply  to  our  petition  as  well  as  the  ad- 
visory one  of  the  Director  Chas.  D.  Walcott 
became  necessary.  We  were  in  hopes  that  our 
petition  would  bring  reconciliation  and  relief. 

We  also  realize  the  arduous  and  trying  posi- 
tion you  are  called  upon  to  fill,  occasioned  by 
the  chaotic  condition  brought  on  by  the  unbusi- 
ness  like  methods  of  your  predecessor.  And  we 
sincerely  hope  and  trust  that  you  will  perform 
the  many  and  trying  duties  of  your  office  with 
honor  to  yourself  and  credit  to  your  Depart- 
ment. We  give  you  a  hearty  welcome,  and 
with  it  the  Assurance  that  the  Association  will 
heartily  cooperate  with  you  in  bringing  har- 
mony out  of  discord,  and  peace  out  of  the  past 
unpleasantness. 

In  presenting  you  with  this  petition  and  re- 
view, we  express  our  confidence  that  you  will 
see  to  it  that  it  will  reach  the  Honorable  Secretary 
with  a  recommendation  commensurate  with  its  im- 
portance and  the  responsible  position  you  occupy. 

Hoping  we  may  get  a  prompt  reply,  we  remain, 
yours  truly, 

CONSOLIDATED  WATER  USERS'  ASSOCIATION. 
Yuma,  Arizona,  Dec.  19,  1906. 


Letter  from  the  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association 

to   President  Roosevelt,   Laying  Before  Him 

the  Facts  of  the  Case  Regarding  the 

Laguna  Dam  Project  Contract 


The  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  have  spared  no  pains  to  get  their  complaints  before 
the  proper  officials  at  Washington,  and  following  is  a  copy  of  the  letter  set  to  President  Roosevelt 
on  that  subject. 


HON.  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT, 
PRESIDENT, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

SIR  :  — It  is  with  a  sense  of  keenest  regret 
that  we  feel  ourselves  at  this  time  compelled  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  bad  faith  and  broken 
agreements,  to  the  citizens,  but  more  particu- 
larity to  the  settler  and  land-owner  under  the 
Yuma  Project,  by  the  maladministration  of  the 
Reclamation  Act  and  by  that  department. 

Appreciating  the  benevolent  motives  that 
actuated  the  framers  and  supporters  of  this  act, 
and  to  which  you  gave  your  support  at  that  time 
with  marked  results,  by  your  familiarity  with 
the  wants  of  the  arid  section,  and  with  your  sin- 
cere desire  that  its  operations  should  be  beneficial 
to  the  homes  and  home-builders  of  this  arid 
section. 

With  this  knowledge  of  your  sincerity,  and 
the  energy  you  have  displayed  in  putting  it  in 
operation,  makes  this  duty  the  more  painful  and 
more  imperative. 

We  had  been  in  hopes  that  our  differences 
could  be  adjusted  through  the  officers  of  the  Re- 
clamation Department  until  recently,  but  the}' 
have  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  our  petitions  and  dis- 
regarded their  pledges  and  agreements  with 
the  people,  but  we  have  now  despaired  of  doing  so, 
without  intervention  or  recommendation  on  your 
rart. 


We  hailed  the  Reclamation  Department  as 
our  benefactor,  desired  to  be  beneficiaries  of  that 
act,  and  with  the  promise  that  the  canal  system 
would  be  unified  under  one  great  system  con- 
trolled by  the  Government,  we  gave  our  adhesion 
to  the  project,  but  with  the  understanding  that 
these  systems  should  be  incorporated  into  the 
Government  system  and  be  operated  by  the 
Reclammation  Department,  during  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Yuma  Project,  to  supply  our  homes 
and  the  valley  with  water,  that  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  country  should  not  be  re- 
tarded by  an  unsettled  condition  of  the  water 
proposition  in  our  midst.  Nor  did  they  secure 
a  sufficient  percentage  of  the  land,  under  their 
contracts,  to  guarantee  the  construction  of  this 
Project  (with  their  skilled  political  methods, 
imported  eloquence  and  threats  that  on  a  fixed 
date  the  books  would  be  closed,  and  all  land  not 
then  signed,  would  have  to  remain  in  the  desert 
condition  or  rely  on  its  own  resources  for  water) 
until  after  a  stipulation  and  an  agreement  with 
one  of  these  canal  companies  as  to  the  price  of 
its  system. 

The  reading  world  is  witnessing  the  mad  rush 
of  the  Colorado  River  into  the  Salton  Sea,  largely 
if  not  wholly,  due  to  the  Reclamation  Depart- 
ment's denial  of  the  legality  of  the  water  ap- 
propriations from  the  lower  Colorado  river, 
and  which  will  cost  the  government  and  the 


20 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


citizens  and  this  project,  before  safety  and  con- 
fidence is  again  restored,  a  much  larger  sum 
than  was  asked  for  all  these  systems  and  their 
appropriations,  within  the  possible  scope  of  use- 
fulness of  the  Yuma  project,  which  would  have 
cemented  the  combined  energies  in  one  move- 
ment to  reclaim  this  arid,  fertile  and  extensive 
section. 

The  government  must  proceed  with  its  work 
as  the  destruction  and  discouragement  of  private 
irrigation  enterprises  is  about  complete.  Tt 
would  be  impossible  to  get  private  capital  to 
again  enter  this  field  after  the  shadow  cast  over 
it  by  the  abandonment  of  it  by  the  government, 
and  our  impoverished  condition  would  prevent 
us  from  doing  so.  The  country  would  again 
lapse  into  its  primitive  condition  at  a  cost  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  settlers 
and  the  pioneers  of  irrigation  enterprises.  But 
a  continuance  of  present  methods  of  the  Reclam- 


mation  Department  means  a  further  destruction 
of  our  property  and  humiliation  of  our  American 
spirit  of  fairness  and  justness,  as  we  are  now  left 
in  the  desert,  among  the  ruins  of  our  former 
prosperity,  with  our  now  impoverished  resources 
to  supply  our  homes  with  water. 

We  hope  by  giving  our  view  of  the  historic 
fact,  connected  with  the  Reclammation  Depart- 
ment, under  the  Yuma  project,  and  enclosing 
you  the  correspondence  between  the  Recla- 
mation Department  and  our  association,  which 
is  hereto  attached,  that  it  will  place  you  in  a  posi- 
tion to  fully  understand  our  differences,  and  make 
recommendations  commensurate  with  the  im- 
portance it  deserves. 

With  a  sincere  desire  for  an  amicable  ad- 
justment and  an  early  reply,  we  are,  yours 
very  truly, 

CONSOLIDATED  WATER  USERS'  ASSOCIATION. 
Yuma  Ariz.,  January  26,  1907. 


Prosperity  vs.  Stagnation 


Blackberry  patch   and   family  of   E.    E.    Forrester,  5 
miles  southwest  of  Imperial. 


Ranch  of  Archie    Jordan,    14   miles   south    of  Yuma. 
Flood  washed  the  under-pinning  from  under  the  house. 


Why  the  Canals  of  the  Valley  have  not  been  Operated 


The  Reclamation  Service  officials  in  order  to  secure  the  signatures  of  land  owners  placing  their 
lands  under  the  Laguna  Dam  Project  promised  to  purchase  two  of  the  three  irrigation  systems  of  the 
Valley  and  also  promised  to  operate  the  three  systems  so  as  to  furnish  the  settlers  with  water  pend- 
ing the  construction  of  the  Laguna  Dam  System.  The  old  companies  could  not  be  expected  to  op- 
perate  them  because  large  sums  of  money  must  be  expended  in  order  to  make  necessary  repairs  and 
this  money  would  be  thrown  away  because  the  systems  were  to  be  abandoned  when  the  Reclamation 
system  was  completed.  If  the  government  did  not  operate  these  systems  the  settlers  must  operate 
them  in  an  inperfect  manner  or  not  at  all — and  in  either  event  the  settlement  would  deteriorate  in- 
stead of  becoming  more  successful.  The  Reclamation  Service  declined  to  carry  out  their  contract 
and  purchase  the  two  systems  and  declined  also  to  operate  either  one  of  them.  The  result  is  as  pre- 
dicted and  as  things  are  going  now  the  settlers  will  be  so  crippled  financially  by  the  time  that  the 
Laguna  Dam  Project  is  completed  that  they  can  neither  pay  for  the  system  nor  even  pay  for  water 
from  the  system.  Following  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  as  to  why  the  canals  of  the  Yuma  Val- 
ley have  not  been  operated  by  the  companies  and  have  been  imperfectly  operated  by  the  disap- 
pointed and  impoverished  settlers. 


The  canals  of  the  Valley  along  the  Colorado 
River  below  Yuma  have  fallen  short  of  the 
hopes  and  ambitions  of  their  builders,  not  as  a 
result  from  natural  causes,  or  because  of  their 
inability  to  supply  the  lands  under  them  with 
water  nor  from  fear  of  not  being  able  to  make 
them  a  financial  success,  but  because  of  the  en- 
croachment of  the  Reclamation  Department 
of  the  United  States  Government  on  the  rights 
of  these  canals  to  the  time  honored  privilege  of 
using  the  waters  of  the  lower  Colorado  river 
for  the  purposes  of  irrigation. 

This  self-invited  branch  of  the  Government 
began  its  raid  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  valley 
by  making  geological  surveys  of  this  section, 
and  they  thus  soon  realized  the  possibilities  of 
this  vast  delta  when  furnished  with  an  abundant 
supply  of  water,  which  could  be  easily  obtained. 
They  studied  the  prospects  of  our  soil  and  real- 
ized the  possibilities  of  future  developments 
under  the  canals  already  installed  and  in  opera- 
tion. They  realized  nothing  but  what  had  been 
demonstarted  by  the  pioneers  who  had  long  be- 
fore conceived  its  possibilities  and  demonstrated 


their  sincerity  by  the  construction  and  opera- 
tion of  the  existing  canal  systems  that  developed 
the  latent  possibilities  of  the  soil  and  climate 
under  the  influence  of  irrigation  by  the  fertile 
waters  of  the  Colorado  river. 

The  Department  had  an  object  lesson  before 
them  and  did  not  have  to  rely  on  speculative 
results.  They  could  make  their  calculations 
from  results  obtained  by  the  pioneers. 

The  California  Development  Company  officers 
frequently  visited  this  valley  in  the  early  days 
of  their  enterprise  of  reclaiming  the  Colorado 
desert  and  converting  it  into  the  wealth  produc- 
ing and  populous  Imperial  Valley,  in  order  to 
show  prospective  settlers  what  could  be  done  un- 
der the  favorable  conditions  existing  in  this  val- 
ley. They  came  to  show  their  customers  an 
object  lesson  of  our  products  and  possibilities, 
because  they  had  a  soil  of  equal  fertility  and 
as  equally  susceptible  of  irrigation. 

This  field  was  a  large  and  inviting  one  but  it 
was  occupied.  This  last  named  fact  aroused 
the  jealously  of  the  designing  members  of  the 
Reclamation  Department,  who  must  have  real- 


22 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUM  A   VALLEY 


ized  the  importance  of  these  canals  in  raising 
real  estate  values  from  a  barren  waste  to  homes 
valued  at  from  $25  to  $75  per  acre,  with  a  pros- 
pective value  as  stated  by  President  Roosevelt 
in  his  message  to  Congress  on  the  Salton  Sea 
disaster,  of  from  $500  to  $1,500  per  acre.  These 
conclusions  of  the  President  must  have  been 
based  wholly  upon  the  results  accomplished 
under  these  private  systems  of  irrigation,  as 
the  government  has  never  as  yet  turned  the  water 
upon  a  single  acre  of  this  great  delta. 

Think  of  the  fabulous  value  that  has  been 
added  to  this  extensive  but  once  barren  and  deso- 
late waste  by  the  pioneers  of  irrigation.  And 
yet  the  jealousy  of  the  Reclamation  Depart- 
ment would  absolutely  destroy  these  pioneer 
canal  systems  that  have  cost  so  much  money 
and  have  so  successfully  demonstrated  the 
value  of  the  worthless  lands  that  have  been  so 
successfully  reclaimed,  making  valuable  homes 
for  themselves  and  families.  Not  only  that 
but  they  have  added  insult  to  injury  by  referring 
to  these  irrigation  systems  as  "physical  and 
financial  failures." 

But  the  present  status  of  these  canals  origi- 
nated in  the  unreasonable  interpretation  put  upon 
the  Reclamation  Act  and  also  by  the  position 
taken  by  the  Reclamation  officials  that  there 
could  be  no.  legal  appropriation  of  water  from 
the  Colorado  river  by  any  of  these  pioneers  of 
irrigation,  who  were  condemned  for  selling  water 
rights  to  the  people  when  they  had  no  legal  ap- 
propriation on  which  to  base  such  water  rights. 
This  naturally  aroused  the  suspicions  of  the 
home-builder  and  awakened  his  desire  to  protect 
his  home  with  a  secure  water  right,  especially 
as  they  were  told  that  the  water  rentals  charged 
by  these  Companies  were  excessive. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  canals  of  the  Valley 
were  incapacitated  for  serving  the  people  by 
natural  causes.  These  recent  floods  have  gained 
more  prominence  than  any  of  a  former  date 
because  of  the  Salton  Sea  disaster,  which  was 
caused  by  the  California  Development  Company 
in  its  efforts  to  avoid  the  effects  of  the  attack 
of  the  Reclamation  Service  on  its  water  appro- 
priations. That  Company  sought  and  obtained 
protection  from  the  government  of  Mexico 
through  a  concession  obtained  from  President 
Diaz  and  ratified  by  the  Mexican  Congress.  In 
pursuance  of  this  concession  it  opened  up  an 
intake  below  the  International  boundary  line, 
but  was  unable  to  protect  that  intake  by  suitable 
head  works  because  of  its  crippled  financial 
condition  caused  by  the  attacks  of  the  Recla- 


mation Department  upon  its  water  filings.  The 
Salton  Sea  was  the  inevitable  result. 

The  California  Development  Company  could 
seek  protection  from  a  foreign  country  because 
of  the  geographical  location  of  the  Imperial 
Vallej'  and  the  conformation  of  the  country, 
but  the  canals  of  the  Yuma  Valley  could  not  thus 
seek  shelter  under  a  Mexican  appropriation  of 
water,  and  they  had  to  submit  to  the  deadly 
threat  of  the  Reclamation  Department  and  see 
their  canals  shorn  of  their  rights  through  the  de- 
cision of  those  government  officials. 

The  pioneer  settlers  of  this  Valley  had  a  right 
to  use  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River,  acting 
under  the  lawr  passed  by  Congress  supplemented 
by  the  acts  of  the  Legislature  of  the  Territory 
of  Arizona. 

These  self-made  critics  and  judges  of  the  law 
cajoled  us  into  believing  that  the  water  rights 
bought  from  these  canal  companies  were  value- 
less and  that  their  owners  were  the  natural 
enemies  of  the  farmers.  They  eloquently  de- 
nounced such  owners  as  the  "water  lords  and 
barons  of  the  desert,"  who  would  tax  us  beyond 
the  point  of  endurance. 

Having  confidence  in  the  representatives  of 
our  Government  and  not  doubting  the  truth  and 
integrity  of  their  statements,  we  adhered  to  their 
plans,  hoping  to  unite  divided  energies  and  thus 
secure  a  perpetual  and  permanent  water  right 
for  our  homes.  This  course  was  pursued  with 
the  distinct  understanding  that  these  pioneer 
canal  systems  should  be  operated  by  the  Govern- 
ment in  order  to  protect  our  homes  during  the 
construction  of  the  Laguna  Dam  project. 
Complying  with  their  demands  we  became  di- 
vorced from  all  the  ties  that  existed  between 
the  canal  companies  and  ourselves — the  land 
owners. 

Is  it  strange  that  these  canal  companies  should 
have  become  inactive  when  the  legality  of  their 
water  appropriations  were  disputed  and  the  lands 
under  their  systems  were  placed  under  the  Recla- 
mation Department  by  the  signatures  of  their 
owners,— under  a  pledge  or  contract  that  the 
canals  would  be  operated  by  the  Government? 
Why  call  these  canal  systems  "physical  and  fi- 
nancial failures"  when  the  methods  adopted 
by  the  Government  representatives  have  caused 
their  inactivity  and  our  poverty?  Under  these 
conditions  a  perfect  system  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions  would  become  a  "physical 
and  financial  failure." 

The  Reclamation  Department,  notwithstand- 
ing its  statement  that  the  waters  of  the  Colo- 


WHY  CANALS  HAVE  NOT  BEEN  OPERATED 


23 


rado  river  could  riot  be  filed  upon  because  that 
river  was  a  navigable  stream,  quietly  proceeded 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  California  and 
Arizona,  and  filed  on  the  waters  of  that  river, 
posting  the  same  character  of  notices  that  were 
posted  by  those  who  filed  on  the  water  for  the 
benefit  of  the  settlers  under  the  pioneer  canal 
systems  and  recorded  these  notices  just  as  other 
people  had  recorded  their  filings.  Is  it  not 
strange  that  these  rights  secured  by  the  Recla- 
mation Department  under  the  same  law,  but 
several  years  later,  should  be  more  legal  or  se- 
cure than  those  of  the  old  Canal  Companies? 

The  canals  of  the  Yuma  Valley  could  have 
been  repaired,  equipped  and  made  serviceable 
throughout  at  an  expense  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  they  could  have  been  successfully 
operated  by  the  citizens  or  by  the  Companies, 
if  the  Reclamation  Service  had  not  promised  to 
manage  them  under  a  stipulation  to  operate 
them  during  the  construction  of  the  Laguna 
Dam  project.  Their  failure  to  fulfill  their  con- 
tract with  the  people  has  caused  the  chaotic 
condition  that  now  exists  in  our  water  affairs, 
and  which  we  thought  had  been  carefully  safe- 
guarded. 

The  Reclamation  Department  criticises  the 
imperfections  of  these  canals,  although  they 
have  been  longer  in  making  surveys  and  commenc- 
ing construction  work  on  the  new  system  than 
the  old  companies  were  in  the  work  of  construct- 
ing their  systems  and  demonstrating  the  value 
and  productiveness  of  the  soil. 

Contrast  our  condition  with  that  of  the  Im- 
perial Valley.  They,  under  private  canals,  are 
thrifty  and  prosperous,  exporting  millions  of 
dollars  worth  of  products  annually.  While  the 
farmers  under  the  blighting  influence  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Department  are  in  poverty,  the 
Laguna  Dam  builders  are  importing  pro- 
visions at  a  high  price  that  would  have  been 
produced  here  at  home  by  our  people  but  for 
the  broken  covenants  of  the  Reclamation  officials. 
The  provisions  thus  imported  at  high  prices  not 
only  make  the  Laguna  Dam  irrigation  system 
cost  more  than  it  should  but  these  settlers  who 
should  have  furnished  the  supplies  at  less  cost 
must  in  the  end  pay  for  their  imported  supplies. 

The  hemlock  of  patience  is  placed  to  our  lips 
that  their  plans  may  be  matured  and  executed 
in  harmony.  While  we  are  being  driven  from 
our  homes,  they  are  saddling  a  burden  on  com- 
ing generations. 

What  remains  of  our  former  prosperity  but 
a  skeleton?  The  noisy  clatter  of  the  frugal 


husbandman  has  succumbed  to  the  silence  and 
solitude  of  death.  The  happy  conditions  of 
the  once  prosperous  people  is  that  of  wretched 
poverty.  Whither  has  flown  this  life  of  frugality, 
and  what  has  destroyed  these  happy  homes  and 
productive  fields  that  were  created,  developed, 
and  fostered  under  the  old  canal  systems  of  the 
Valley  before  this  unnatural  disturbance?  From 
whence  proceed  such  fatal  results?  What  causes 
have  so  changed  the  conditions  of  the  country? 
Why  have  not  these  former  conditions  prevailed 
to  this  date?  With  these  meditations  and  a 
brief  review  of  the  recent  history  of  events  that 
have  developed  these  conditions  with  which 
many  are  familiar,  we  find  that  the  origin  of  our 
troubles  started  with  the  attack  on  our  water 
rights  and  the  substitution  of  one  water  system 
for  another  with  no  one  to  care  for  and  manage 
the  old  system  during  the  years  that  the  new 
one  was  being  constructed.  We  were  offered 
what  seemed  to  us  to  be  the  strongest  hand 
possible  to  assist  us  in  our  effort  to  protect  our 
homes  and  to  enlarge  the  producing  area  of  this 
section  of  the  territory.  The  government  was 
to  place  our  feet  on  a  solid  foundation,  but 
through  the  broken  promises  of  the  Reclama- 
tion Department  we  have  received  treatment 
from  their  hands  similar  to  that  shown  by  the 
treacherous  Joab  who,  feigning  friendship  for 
Amasa,  took  him  by  the  beard  with  one  hand 
to  greet  him  with  a  kiss,  but  with  a  sword  in  the 
other,  slew  him. 

These  are  strange  conditions,  originating  from 
the  bad  faith  of  a  branch  of  our  Government, 
a  result  undreamed  of  by  the  confiding  people 
under  this  project.  And  yet  the  strangest  fea- 
ture is  that  a  few  insist  on  patience,  while  others 
are  in  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life;  but  the 
leaders  in  the  former  class  are  under  salaries 
and  are  not  dependent  on  the  products  of  the 
valley  for  a  livlihood. 

The  Reclamation  Department  promised  us 
figs  but  have  given  us  thistles — bread  and  they 
gave  us  stones.  They  were  profuse  in  promises 
to  better  our  conditions  and  to  extend  the  areas 
of  productiveness.  They  lamented  our  bondage 
to  corporate  control  and  eloquently  portrayed 
our  Edenic  condition  under  Government  manage- 
ment. Our  imaginary  wrongs  were  magnified, 
our  prejudices  were  excited  by  imported  speak- 
ers and  skilled  political  methods,  and  our  cred- 
ulity was  successfully  worked  upon.  Having 
implicit  confidence  in  our  government  and  the 
integrity  of  its  representatives,  we  became  cred- 
ulous and  susceptible  to  their  plans  and  gave 


24 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


our  adhesion  to  their  contracts — not  however, 
until  we  were  safeguarded  by  stipulations  sup- 
posed to  be  ample  to  protect  our  homes  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  community,  but  which  have 
been  turned  down  by  the  power  that  created 
them. 

These  pictures  of  wonderful  beauty  have  be- 
come transformed  into  a  delusive  mirage— our 
pleasant  dreams  have  turned  to  horrible  night- 
mares. There  is  an  old  adage  that  no  one  is 
above  or  beyond  the  control  of  the  law.  But 
here  is  a  practical  exception  to  this  time-honored 
adage.  The  law  becomes  perfectly  flexible  by 


means  of  department  rulings  and  is  warped  and 
twisted  like  a  reed  before  a  cyclone  to  suit  con- 
ditions and  contingencies  as  they  arise. 

It  does  not  become  any  man  to  make  himself 
wiser  than  the  law.  But  they  overcome  this 
embarrassment  by  grinding  out  department 
rulings  to  suit  their  convenience.  "The  creature 
is  dictating  to  the  creator."  "The  tail  wags  the 
dog."  "A  king  can  do  nothing  but  what  he 
can  do  by  the  law." 

The  Reclamation  Department  has  become 
a  C/ar  and  the  people  are  the  serfs.  "No  man 
is  punished  for  the  crime  of  another."  This 


Headquarters  of  Reclamation  Service  Officials  at  Yuma, 

Arizona, — and  the  Settlers  Pay 

the  Freight 


"Their  livery  is  of  the  most  costly  material  and  latest  pattern  and  their  tables  are  sumptously  spread  with  the 
fat  of  the  land — mostly  the  products  of  foreign  climes,  while  our  attire  is  of  the  shabbiest  fabric  and  our  tables  are 
scantily  spread  with  the  impaired  products  of  our  own  land — reduced  to  this  poverty  by  the  broken  covenants  of  the 
Reclamation  Department." 


AFFIDAVITS   OF  SETTLERS  AND    BUSINESS   MEN 


L'O 


is  a  law  and  not  an  axiom.  The  peopl  under 
this  project,  however,  are  being  punished  for 
the  sins  of  the  Reclamation  Department  through 
the  mal-administration  of  the  act  creating  the 
department.  Our  deserted  and  desolate  valley 
is  a  solitary  ghastly  witness  of  its  crime  and  a 
humilation  to  our  government. 

Some  two  thousand  years  ago,  according  to 
sacred  history,  there  was  an  unfortunate  man 
traveling  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  who  fell 
among  thieves.  The  people  of  Yuma  in  passing 
down  Bondesson  Avenue,  by  way  of  the  Recla- 
mation Department,  have  met  like  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  J.  B.  Lippincott  and  his  busi- 
ness associates.  This  people  have  been  sand 
bagged  to  the,  point  of  extermination.  The 
priest  and  the  Levite  have  passed  on  all  sides 
of  our  deserted  and  desolate  homes  times  with- 
out number.  The}'  have  heard  our  cry  and 
disregarded  our  prayers,  with  the  same  indiff- 
erence that  they  have  their  pledges.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  our  old  and  accursed, — but  imaginary 
enemies^ — the  private  canal  companies — are  yet 
to  become  the  Good  Samaritan? 

We  were  the  children  of  promise,  with  the 
Reclamation  Department  acting  as  the  Goddess 
of  our  prospective  paradise — the  protector  of 
our  rights  and  homes.  Beautiful  dream  but  a 
horrible  delusion  and  an  awTful  deception.  We 
were  cajoled  into  trusting  her  with  our  inheri- 
tance. Then  she  became  a  capricious  step- 


mother, and  we  the  Isrealites  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  They  are  living  sumptously  at  the 
expense  of  our  property.  They  are  robed  in 
the  authority  of  a  Czar,  created  by  their  own 
Department  rulings.  They  are  unbound  by 
contract  and  ungoverned  by  law — conditions 
that  are  un-American  and  foreign  to  our  form 
of  government. 

Yes,  we  prefer  the  fleshpots  of  our  former 
prosperity  and  our  unincumbered  homes  of 
former  times,  rather  than  follow  these  strange 
gods  of  the  desert  to  further  extremes.  They 
are  not  entitled  to  be  called  a  Moses,  for  they 
suffer  not  the  affliction  with  the  people.  Their 
livery  is  of  the  most  costly  material  and  latest 
pattern  and  their  tables  are  sumptously  spread 
with  the  fat  of  the  land — mostly  the  products 
of  foreign  climes,  while  our  attire  is  of  the  shab- 
biest fabric  and  our  tables  are  scantily  spread 
with  the  impaired  products  of  our  own  land — 
reduced  to  this  poverty  by  the  broken  covenants 
of  the  Reclamation  Department. 

This  Department  is  not  a  Saviour  for  they 
saved  nothing  for  the  home  builder;  but  a  Luci- 
fer who  was  ready  to  sacrifice  our  former  para- 
dise to  gratify  their  inordinate  ambition. 
Caught  in  the  jaws  of  this  department  the  time 
honored  home  builder  and  pioneer  is  ground 
to  desperation  and  despair. 

R.  H.  THEILMANN, 
President  Consolidated  Water  Users  Assn. 


Affidavits  of  Settlers  and  Business  Men  of  Yuma  Valley 


Following  are  a  few  extracts  from  the  affidavits  duly  executed  and  placed  on  file  with  the  Interior 
Department,  showing  the  condition  of  the  Yuma  Valley  during  the  past  few  years  and  the  effects  on 
that  business  condition  exercised  by  the  Irrigation  Land  and  Improvement  Company,  and  the  disas- 
trous effects  of  the  operation  of  the  Reclamation  Service  during  the  past  few  years. 


Louis  Essleburn,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for 
28  years  and  for  8  years  last  past  in  the  livery 
business,  says: 

"The  settlement,  growth  and  development 
of  the  Valley  has  been  due  to  the  construction 
of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Go's,  canal  and  their  reliable 
water  supply.  The  land  under  this  system  a  little 
over  one  year  ago  was  selling  from  $10  to  $50 
per  acre,  due  to  the  successful  operation  of  the 
system.  The  country  was  thrifty  and  pros- 
perous, due  to  the  fertile  soil,  good  climate  and  a 
reliable  water  supply,  and  without  this  system 


there  would  be  no  greater  population  in  the  Valley 
at  the  present  time  than  there  was  when  the  I. 
L.  &  L.  Co.  began  the  construction  of  its  canal. 
That  the  business  of  Yuma  has  trebled  since  the 
advent  of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Go's,  canal,  but  about  one 
year  ago  prices  began  to  decline  because  of  the 
Reclamation  Department  appearing  as  a  com- 
petitor to  the  canal  companies  of  the  Valley, 
which  has  wrought  disaster  to  them  and  depre- 
ciated town  and  farm  property.  Business  is  at 
a  general  standstill  and  will  remain  so  until  there 
is  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  water  proposi- 
tion." 


26 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


0.  C.  Johnson,  dealer  in  general    merchandise, 
swears  to  practically  the  same  state  of  affairs. 

diaries  E.  Lewis,  a  farmer  in  the  Valley,  says: 
"Am  acquainted  with  the  Yuma  Valley  and 
the  canals  of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co.;  that  the  lands 
farmed  under  their  system  have  had  sufficient 
water,  excepting  during  the  latter  part  of  1904; 
that  the  said  canal  would  have  been  a  financial 
success  had  it  not  been  for  interference  from  the 
Reclamation  Department." 

S.  H.  Johnson,  a  farmer,  says: 

"Have  lived  in  the  Colorado  Valley  below 
Yuma  continuously  since  1898  and  have  been 
raising  aflafa  every  year,  from  10  to  50  acres, 
and  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief  the 
I.  L.  &  I.  Co.  have  supplied  their  customers  with 
water  regularly,  except  when  cleaning  out  the 
canals." 

John  Lyall,  a  farmer,  says: 

"The  I.  L.  &  I.  Co.  has  used  every  means  in 
its  power  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  Valley 
and  without  their  water  the  Valley  would  still 
be  practically  in  its  natural  state." 

S.  F.  de  Corse,  an  electrical  engineer  by  pro- 
fession, and  a  resident  of  Yuma  for  28  years, 
says: 

"The  settlement,  growth  and  development 
of  the  Valley  has  been  wholly  due  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co's.  canal  and  its  reliable 
water  supply.  During  the  last  year  prices  have 
declined,  owing  to  the  unsettled  condition  of 
the  water  proposition  caused  by  the  Reclama- 
tion Department." 

U:  S.  Smith,  a  real  estate  agent,  residing  in 
Yuma  and  Yuma  Valley  for  six  years,  says: 

"That  at  the  time  the  L  L.  &  I.  Co.  com- 
menced its  construction  the  land  under  this 
system  was  in  a  state  of  nature,  most  of  it  being 
open  to  squatters  and  at  no  market  value;  and 
the  lands  under  this  sytsem  advanced  in 
value  to  from  $10  to  $50~  per  acre,  owing  to 
the  safe  and  reliable  water  supply  of  the  I.  L. 
&  I-  Co.  *  *  *  Prices  have  de- 

clined in  the  last  year,  owing  to  the  unsettled 
condition  of  the  water  proposition." 

1.  F.  Marshall,  a  settler  in  the  Valley,  says: 
"My  land  being  west  of  the  natural  channels 

and  in  going  to  and  returning  from  Yuma,  it  is 
necessary  for  me  to  cross  the  system  of  the 
I.  L.  &  I.  Co.,  and  it  was  always  running  water 
and  generally  full." 

Charles  D.  Breedlove,  who  has  been  a  resident 
of  the  Yuma  Valley  for  five  years,  owns  160 
acres  of  land  and  has  signed  up  with  the  water 
users'  association,  while  he  had  a  water  right  deed 
for  30  acres  of  his  land  in  the  I.  L.  A:  I.  Co's. 
Canal,  says: 

"I  have  taken  water  from  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co. 
canal  for  the  past  three  years  and  the  water 
service  has  been  entirely  satisfactory." 


R.  H.  Cochrane  says: 

"I  am  working  for  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co.  and  have 
been  since  November,  1904,  and  that  I  was  work- 
ing during  the  high  water  periods  of  1905  on  both 
day  and  night  shifts.  That  no  time  during  said 
high  water  periods  was  the  water  level  below 
Head  Gate  No.  1  within  3  ft.  of  the  water  level 
above  the  Gate,  and  that  said  Head  Gate  No.  1 
was  not  open  at  any  time  during  said  high  water 
periods." 

Joseph  D.  Bell,  a  resident  of  Yuma  Valley  for 
14  years,  and  the  owner  of  140  acres  of  land, 
signed  up  with  the  Water  Users  Association, 
and  says: 

"The  settlement,  growth  and  development 
of  the  Valley  has  been  wholly  due  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co's.  system  and  its  reliable 
water  supply,  without  which  the  Valley  would 
be  as  destitute  of  population  as  it  was  at  the 
time  it  began  its  construction,  as  it  has  been  the 
only  reliable  water  supply  except  the  pump 
system.  I  am  a  stockholder  in  the  Yuma  Valley 
Union  Land  &  Water  Co.  but  feel  it  my  duty  to 
make  this  affidavit  in  the  interest  of  justice  only." 

Isaac  Polhamus,  a  resident  of  Yuma  County 
for  48  years,  says: 

"That  he  is  well  acquainted  with  the  I.  L.  &  I. 
Co.  and  with  the  territory  through  which  said 
company's  canals  run.  That  the  land  under 
their  system  of  canals  has  had  an  abundant  sup- 
ply of  water  from  said  canals  except  such  time 
as  they  were  cleaning  out  their  canals  and  mak- 
ing necessary  repairs." 

Jose  L.  Molina,  a  resident  of  Yuma  for  27 
years,  says: 

"Am  a  resident  of  Yuma,  Yuma  County,  Ari- 
zona; am  engaged  in  the  merchandise  business 
at  Yuma;  am  well  acquainted  with  the  Yuma 
Valley  and  the  canals  of  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co.  That 
the  land  farmed  under  them  have  an  abundant 
and  full  supply  of  water;  that  the  said  canals 
have  been  the  principal  sources  of  water  for  irri- 
gation purposes  and  have  done  more  than  any 
or  all  other  water  systems  towards  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Valley.  The  system  has  been  oper- 
ated successfully  since  the  year  1901  and  has 
always  been  considered  a  financial  success." 

NOTE:  This  same  statement  of  facts  is  also 
sworn  to  by  Henry  H.  McPhaul,  a  resident  of 
the  Valley  for  8  years,  engaged  in  mining  and 
farming. 

W.  A.  Bowles,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for  3£ 
years  and  engaged  in  general  merchandise. 

P.  B.  Hodges,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for  thirty 
years. 

John  Gandolfo,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for 
twenty-eight  years,  engaged  in  general  mer- 
chandise business. 

K.    F.    Sanguinetti,    a    resident   of   the   Valley 


AFFIDAVITS  OF  SETTLERS  AND  BUSINESS  MEN 


27 


for  twenty-two  years,  engaged  in  a  general  mer- 
chandise business. 

L.  E.  Carr,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for  six 
years. 

W.  H.  Shorey,  a  resident  of  the  Valley  for  ten 
years,  engaged  in  business  at  Yuma, 

A.  C.  Jordan,  the  owner  of  160  acres  of  land 
under  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Go's,  canals,  says: 

"Have  farmed  50  acres  continuously  since  the 
year  1901,  and  have  had  an  abundant  and  full 
supply  of  water  to  irrigate  my  land,  save  and  ex- 
cept a  period  of  about  one  month  being  between 
the  dates  of  December  20th,  1904,  to  January 
20,  1905,  being  the  period  when  said  company 
was  engaged  in  cleaning  and  repairing  their 
canal." 

NOTE:  This  same  statement  is  sworn  to  also 
by  James  H.  Hobbs,  the  owner  of  160  acres 
with  45  acres  under  cultivation. 

By  F.  L.  Despain,  the  o\vner  of  160  acres  with 
40  acres  under  cultivation. 

By  C.  E.  Yarwood,  the  owner  of  200  acres  with 
80  acres  under  cultivation. 

By  Antonio  Preciado,  the  owner  of  100  acres 
with  15  acres  under  cultivation. 

By  Thomas  Lyall,  the  owner  of  160  acres  with 
40  acres  under  cultivation. 

By  John  Lyall,  the  owner  of  160  acres  with 

from  30  to  110  acres  under  cultivation. 

L.  D.  Johnson  says: 

"I  have  been  zanjero  for  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co. 
since  and  inclusive  the  year  of  1900  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  That  I  have  had  a  sufficient  supply 
of  water  for  the  patrons  of  said  company  during 
all  of  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  a  period, 
of  about  one  month,  which  was  from  about  the 
20th  of  December,  1904,  to  the  20th  of  January, 
1905;  that  the  patrons  of  said  company  have  had 
no  cause  for  complaint." 

E.  D.  Rudolph,  re'sident  of  Yuma  County,  says: 
"Have  farm  land  under  the  canal  of  the  I.  L. 
&  I.  Co.  and  received  water  therefrom  since  the 
year  1901,  until  August,  1904.  That  I  had  dur- 
ing all  of  such  time  a  full  and  abundant  supply 
of  water  to  irrigate  my  land.  That  during  said 
time  the  canal  has  been  operated  successfully 
and  entirely  satisfactory  to  me." 

Sam.  Rudolph,  of  Yuma  County,  says: 
"I  have  farmed  continuously  since  my  resi- 
dence and  took  water  from  the  I.  L.  &  I.  Co. 
and  had  at  all  times  a  full  and  abundant  supply. 
Said  canal  has  been  operated  successfully  and  to 
my  entire  satisfaction." 

Charles  E.  Lewis,  a  resident  of  Yuma  Valley 
for  six  years,  and  a  farmer,  says: 

I  am  familiar  with  the  canal  systems  of  the 
valley  about  Yuma,  and  the  growth  and  de- 
velopment of  the  land  under  them. 


That  the  country  in  general  was  thrifty  and 
prosperous  and  all  lines  of  business  in  good  con- 
dition. That  the  lands  under  these  systems  was 
being  developed  as  rapidly  as  the  financial  con- 
dition of  the  settler  permitted  them,  until  the 
Reclamation  Department  appeared  and  pre- 
sented its  plans  of  further  and  future  develop- 
ment under  Government  ownership  under  the 
Reclamation  Act. 

Believing  that  the  Act  was  broad  enough  and 
the  Department  fair  enough  to  fully  and  amply 
protect  the  pioneers  of  irrigation,  who  were  the 
educators,  demonstrating  the  value  of  this  arid 
region  would  be  protected  in  their  lawful,  just 
and  equitable  rights,  I,  with  others,  gave  the. 
Department  my  hearty  and  undivided  support , 
believeing  that  all  systems  would  be  unifie  dunder 
one  great  project  controlled  by  the  Government. 
Not,  however,  until  we  had  requested  the  Depart- 
ment take  up  and  operate  one  or  more  of  these 
systems  and  supply  to  the  lands  under  them  with 
water  during  the  construction  of  the  Government, 
system,  which  we  were  led  to  believe  would  be 
done  by  representatives  of  the  Reclamation  De- 
partment to  protect  our  homes  in  the  interim 
time. 

The  water  right  contracts  that  the  land  hold- 
ers were  required  to  sign  by  the  Reclamation 
Department  absolutely  eliminated  the  possi- 
bility of  competition  with  the  Department  and 
by  these  contracts  the  future  of  the  valley  waa 
destroyed  to  all  private  irrigating  enterprises.. 
That  when  the  land  was  signed  up  under  these 
systems  to  the  Reclamation  Department  the 
canal  companies  turned  their  time  and  energy  to 
the  adjustment  of  their  rights  with  the  Depart- 
ment and  not  to  the  furnishing  of  water  under 
them,  as  there  was  not  sufficient  and  under 
cultivation  to  be  profitable;  the  development 
of  the  land  ceased,  the  land  owners  not  desiring 
to  buy  water  rights  from  the  canal  system  and 
pay  thirty-five  or  forty  dollars  per  acre  to  the 
Reclamation  Department  also. 

The  method  pursued  thus  far  by  the  Recla- 
mation Department  has  not  only  wrecked  the 
canal  companies  of  this  valley  about  Yuma  but 
if  pursued  in  will  reduce  the  homes  to  a  desert 
condition  before  the  completion  of  the  Govern- 
ment system.  Our  lands  have  declined  in  value. 
Had  I  known  this  course  was  going  to  be  pursued, 
I  would  not  have  signed  my  lands  under  their 
contracts." 


Frank  H.  Stanley,  of  Brawley,  Imperial 
Valley,  California,  makes  affidavit  as  follows: 

"During  a  trip  of  F.  H.  Newell  to  the  Imperial 
Valley,  and  often  a  mass  meeting  held  at  the 
town  of  Imperial,  did  hear  said  F.  H.  Newell, 
the  director  of  the  Reclamation  Department 
say  to  a  party  of  five  or  six,  of  which  number  he 
was  one  of  them,  when  in  the  conversation  it  was 
brought  up  how  to  get  rid  of  the  California  De- 
velopment Company,  "that  it  might  be  neces- 
sary to  .turn  the  valley  back  to  a  desert  in  order 
to  accomplish  their  purpose.'  ' 


Why  the  Imperial  Valley  Settlers  Oppose  the  Recla- 
mation Service  Officials 


The  following  letter  from  I.  W.  Gleason,  President  of  Imperial  Water  Company  No.  1,  to  J.  E. 
Ludy,  Vice-President  and  General  Manager  of  the  Ludy  Canal  System  in  Arizona  below  Yuma,  ex- 
plains the  situation  very  clearly  and  forcibly  and  places  before  the  public  the  reasons  that  have 
guided  the  settlers  of  the  Imperial  Valley  in  their  opposition  to  the  program  as  outlined  for  them  by 
the  Reclamation  Service  officials: 


IMPERIAL  WATER  CO.  No.  1. 

OFFICERS: 

I.  W.  GLEASON,  President. 

W.  A.  VAN  HORN,  Vice-President. 

E.  R.  BAKER,  Secretary. 

LEROY  HOLT,  Treasurer. 

L.  F.  FARNSWORTH,  Superintendent. 

Imperial,  Cal.,  May  30,  1907. 
Mr.  J.  E.  Ludy, 

Yuma,  Arizona. 

My  Dear  Sir: — You  have  asked  me  why  a 
large  proportion  of  the  people  of  Imperial  Valley 
are  now  opposed  to  the  entrance  of  the  Recla- 
mation Service  here,  and  have  apparently  pre- 
ferred to  take  their  chances  with  the  California 
Development  Company  backed  by  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad  Co. 

In  1904  a  large  majority  of  our  people,  depend- 
ing on  the  promises  and  representations  of  Rec- 
lamation Officials,  were  desirous  of  turning  our 
system  over  to  the  Service  UNTIL  we  found  it 
impossible  to  secure  from  them  any  reasonable 
assurance  that  our  rights  would  be  respected 

It  finally  became  evident  to  us  that  we  would 
have  to  acquire  title  to  our  lands  over  again  under 
the  terms  of  the  Reclamation  Law,  after  we  had 
fully  complied  with  the  desert  land  law  and  were 
entitled  to  receive  patent  on  approximately 
200,000  acres  of  Government  land. 

It  appeared  to  us  that  with  the  exception  of  the 
appropriation  made  by  the  people  of  Yuma 
valley,  we  had  a  prior  right  to  the  waters  of  the 
Colorado  River,  and  it  became  evident  that  the 
Reclamation  Officials  with  all  future  appropria- 
tions on  that  river  would  compel  us  to  bear  the 


burden  of  expensive  reservoirs  which  will  some 
day  be  necessary  in  order  to  conserve  and  utilize 
the  summer  floods. 

It  was  claimed  by  Reclamation  officials  that 
our  system  must  in  the  end  be  an  absolute  fail- 
ure because  of  the  sediment  filling  the  canals 
where  our  water  was  diverted  from  the  Colorado 
River.  That  the  Laguna  Dam  was  for  that 
reason  an  absolute  necessity,  and  that  the  only 
value  in  our  present  system  was  the  value  of 
such  portion  of  our  distributing  canals  as  they 
might  be  able  to  utilize  in  the  Government  sys- 
tem, and  hence  all  expenditures  made  by  us  for 
water  rights  and  canals,  and  all  rights  acquired 
thereunder  was  a  dead  loss,  and  thus  it  appeared 
that  with  the  exception  of  the  value  of  such  part 
of  our  distributing  system  as  they  might  see  fit 
to  utilize,  we  must  pay  as  much  for  the  new  sys- 
tem as  if  such  expenditure  had  never  been  made, 
and  must  acquire  all  right  and  title  to  our  lands 
over  again  under  such  terms  as  would  drive  out 
and  permanently  expel  from  our  valley  most 
of  the  men  who  had  invested  their  time,  money 
and  enthusiasm  to  make  this  valley  what  it  had 
become. 

This  attitude  of  the  service  toward  our  rights 
and  interests  became  pretty  well  established  in 
the  minds  of  a  few  of  us  in  1904.  They  did  not 
seem  fair  or  just  to  us  and  we  raised  the  question 
whether  they  were  friends,  or  enemies  in  dis- 
guise, and  when  the  matter  came  up  for  consid- 
eration again  in  1907  we  determined  to  require 
the  Reclamation  Officials  to  declare  their  inten- 
tions before  we  lent  them  any  assistance  or  sup- 
port. 


LETTER   FKOM   I.  W.    GLEASON 


29 


Congressman  Smith  finally  "smoked  them 
out"  and  got  official  confirmation  of  our  worst 
fears  along  these  lines,  and  by  1907  their  state- 
ments concerning  the  accumulation  of  sediment 
had  been  abundantly  proven  false.  In  fact  the 
unfriendly  attitude  of  the  Service  toward  our 
rights  and  interests,  and  the  reason  for  it  became 
pretty  well  understood. 

Such  statements  as  that  reported  made  by 
engineer  Hill  before  the  House  Committee  on 
Irrigation  that  " Imperial  Valley  could  NOT  be 
supplied  with  water  through  our  concrete  head- 
ing while  the  Government  system  was  being  in- 
stalled" was  looked  upon  as  both  false  and  ma- 
licious by  nearly  all  people  who  had  interests 
in  the  valley,  and  could  only  be  accounted  for 
on  the  theory  that  it  was  the  aim  of  the  Recla- 
mation Service  to  bring  Imperial  Valley  down 
to  the  condition  of  Yuma  Valley  in  order  to  ef- 
fectually DESTROY  the  rights  we  had  acquired 
and  give  them  the  "FREE  HAND"  they  were 
demanding. 

These  facts  coupled  with  the  condition  in  which 
they  had  placed  Yuma  Valley,  and  many  other 
things  not  necessary  to  mention  here,  forced  us 
to  look  upon  the  Reclamation  Service  as  the 
most  dangerous  enemy  Imperial  Valley  had, 
and  the  cause  of  many  of  the  adverse  conditions 
under  which  we  have  been  compelled  to  struggle 
for  existence. 

I  am  reliably  informed  that  Director  of  the 
Geological  Survey  Wolcott  wrote  in  substance 
the  President's  Message  to  Congress  on  Imperial 
Valley.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Reclamation  Service  toward  our  interests  and 
indicates  that  the  President  has  not  yet  found 
the  Reclamation  officials  out  as  we  know  them. 

The  people  of  Imperial  Valley  do  not  now  be- 
lieve that  we  have  any  use  for  Laguna  Dam.  We 
believe  that  its  cost,  together  with  a  $6,000,000 
canal  to  carry  the  water  from  it  to  our  lands 
would  be  a  useless  expenidture  of  a  vast  sum  of 
money.  We  believe  that  our  problem  is  to  build 
and  maintain  a  levee  that  will  keep  the  Colo- 
rado River  out,  except  such  part  of  it  as  we  may 
wish  to  admit  through  the  present  concrete 


heading,  and  this  problem  would  be  in  no  way 
lessened  by  the  use  of  Laguna  Dam. 

This  concrete  gate  is  built  on  solid  rock,  not 
on  sand,  and  after  closing  the  break  the  last  time 
the  greatest  amount  of  water  needed  for  130,000 
acres  now  under  irrigation  only  required  the 
opening  of  one  of  the  ten  gates  about  half  way 
open. 

We  hope  and  believe  that  Laguna  Dam  built 
on  the  sand  will  hold  and  stand  the  test  of  the 
floods,  but  no  one  can  say  that  it  is  as  certain  to 
do  so  as  our  concrete  gate,  and  we  have  no  in- 
clination to  trade  a  sure  thing  for  one  that  is 
less  certain. 

We  appreciate  your  services  in  helping  us  to 
show  up  the  Reclamation  Service  in  its  true 
light,  and  will  be  glad  to  assist  you  if  the  oppor- 
tunity comes  of  helping  you  to  get  reasonable 
consideration  of  your  rights  and  interests. 

I  understand  that  the  Members  of  Congress 
were  very  indignant  when  they  found  that  the 
$2,000,000  asked  for  to  help  out  Imperial  Valley 
by  the  Flint  bill  was  in  reality  to  help  out  the 
Reclamation  Service  and  to  be  an  entering  wedge 
for  further  and  still  greater  appropriations  direct 
to  help  out  their  plans  and  carry  on  their  various 
uncompleted  projects  and  was  turned  down  cold 
by  the  House  when  that  feature  became  known, 
and  hence  it  wrould  not  appear  that  the  prospect 
for  assistance  by  direct  appropriations  by  Con- 
gress was  very  good  at  the  present  time,  but  it 
is  as  good  or  better  than  it  would  have  been  if 
this  appropriation  had  been  made  and  Imperial 
Valley  included  with  your  project  together  with 
the  vast  expenditure  of  money  that  it  would 
have  called  for. 

Our  interests  must  always  be  closely  connected 
even  if  under  different  systems  and  we  can  often 
be  of  great  service  to  each  other,  and  it  is  our 
desire  to  do  all  we  can  to  establish  the  most 
friendly  relations  between  the  people  of  this 
and  Yuma  Valley. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

I.  W.  GLEASON, 
President  Imperial  Water  Co.  No.L 


Oppressive   Use  of   Power 


The  Irrigation  Age  of  May  1906  publishes  a  fair  review  of  the  situation  in  the  Yuma  Valley, 
and  although  these  points  are  mostly  covered  in  other  articles  in  this  pamphlet,  we  reproduce  the 
article  in  full  as  it  presents  the  facts  in  a  very  honest  and  forcible  manner. 


During  the  past  year  many  complaints  have 
come  to  us  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the 
Reclamation  Service  has  been  handling  affairs 
in  connection  with  development  work  along  the 
lower  Colorado  River  near  Yuma,  Ariz.  So 
many  complaints  were  forwarded  recently  that 
the  editor  decided  to  visit  Yuma  and  secure  data 
from  those  interested.  A  careful  study  of  the 
situation  coupled  with  talks  with  individuals 
in  and  near  Yuma  brought  out  many  interesting 
facts. 

More  than  two  years  before  the  Reclamation 
Law  was  passed  by  Congress  the  Irrigation  Land 
and  Improvement  Company,  of  Yuma,  Ariz., 
had  begun  irrigating  lands  in  the  Yuma  Valley, 
taking  the  water  therefor  from  the  Colorado 
River.  It  had  made  appropriations  of  the  water 
of  that  river,  and  acquired,  by  purchase  and  as- 
signment, prior  appropriations,  under  the  laws 
of  the  territory  of  Arizona,  making  the  first  ap- 
propriator  in  time  the  first  in  right.  The  men 
who  put  their  time,  money  and  labor  into  this 
irrigation  work  were  offered  by  Arizona  the 
further  inducement  that  such  enterprise  should 
be  exempt  from  taxation  for  the  term  of  fifteen 
years.  Before  the  reclamation  engineers  went 
into  that  district,  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Company  had 
water  running  in  more  than  forty  miles  of  main 
canals  and  ditches,  and  was  irrigating  more  than 
4,000  acres  of  theretofore  arid  lands.  It  had 
submitted  to  the  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office,  for  approval,  its  plat  showing  its 
system  of  canals,  reservoirs,  etc.,  and  the  same 
was  approved  by  Secretary  Hitchcock  on  the 
30th  of  October  1903,  thus  giving  that  company 
title  to  the  land  required  for  said  canals,  reser- 
voirs, etc.  This  approval  was  given  and  these 
rights  acquired,  in  the  face  of  opposition  which 
was  interposed  by  the  Reclamation  Service,  the 
latter  claiming  that  the  Government  might  want 
to  enter  that  field,  and  the  approval  of  the  plat 
would  confer  vested  rights  to  pester  the  Govern- 
ment in  its  enterprise.  Furthermore,  many 
locators  under  the  desert  law  were  allowed  to 
prove  up  on  their  claims  in  that  valley  by  showing 
that  they  had  a  water  right  from  the  I.  L.  and 
I.  Company  for  a  perpetual  supply  of  water. 


In  the  Yuma  Valley,  below  the  main  canals 
of  this  company,  lie  about  50,000  acres  of  land, 
for  the  irrigation  of  which  the  main  canals,  res- 
ervoirs, settling  basin,  etc.,  had  been  constructed 
before  Newell's  men  got  into  Yuma,  and  organ- 
ized the  Water  Users'  Association.  The  work 
of  further  extensions  would  have  been,  at  slight 
relative  cost  to  the  company,  and  was  proceed- 
ing, and  would  have  been  continued  as  rapidly 
as  the  settler  could  get  ready  to  improve  his  land. 
In  the  month  of  February,  1904,  the  town 
and  county  of  Yuma  were  enjoying  a  prosperity 
never  known  before  or  since,  greater  than  they 
will  know  again  in  the  next  five  years,  if  the  past 
and  present  methods  of  the  Reclamation  Bureau 
continue  in  force.  By  that  time  said  I.  L.  & 
I.  Company  had  expended,  in  money  and  labor, 
on  its  plant  approximately  $300,000.  Its  en- 
gineer and  general  manager,  J.  E.  Ludy,  had  then 
been  working  for  four  years,  asking  and  receiving 
from  the  company  only  a  bare  sustenance,  ex- 
pecting to  reap  a  rich  reward  in  the  enhanced 
value  of  his  large  holdings  of  stock.  All  the  other 
stockholders  felt  the  same  confidence  in  the  ulti- 
mate success  of  the  enterprise.  The  writer,  at 
the  time  of  his  visit,  learns  that  in  those  days, 
farmers  marketing  in  the  town  of  Yuma  their 
crop  of  alfalfa,  were  netting  about  $50  per  acre 
on  their  irrigated  lands,  which  were  a  part  of  that 
great  Arizona  desert  less  than  two  years  before 
when  the  Reclamation  Act  was  passed. 

At  this  time,  and  with  a  demonstration  by 
private  enterprise  of  what  irrigation  could  ac- 
complish in  that  valley,  Newell's  men  entered 
the  field,  organized  the  Water  Users'  Association, 
and  started  out  on  their  mission  to  accomplish 
the  undoing  of  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Company.  Where 
slander  and  libel  were  inadequate  bull-doxing 
methods  were  employed.  The  Standard  Oil 
Company  and  John  D.  Rockefeller  never  em- 
ployed more  unconscionable  methods  to  ruin  a 
competitor  in  the  oil  field  than  have  been  used  by 
Newell,  Lippincott,  et.  al.,  down  in  the  Yuma 
Valley.  The  people  were  told  that  private  en- 
terprise could  not  cope  with  the  difficulties  of  that 
river;  that  use,  or  appropriations  of  the  waters 
of  the  Colorado  River,  by  private  persons  or  con- 


OPPRESSIVE    USE    OF    POWER 


33 


cerns,  were  invalid,  because  the  river  was  a  navi- 
gable stream;  that  the  Government  was  going  to 
install  a  plant  which  would  have  the  right  to  use 
the  water,  under  a  system  capable  of  coping  with 
all  difficulties  and  that  those  who  did  not  desert 
the  private  concern  and  agree  to  take  water  from 
the  Government  would  not  get  water  when  the 
private  concern  had  been  put  out  of  commission, 
as  it  inevitably  would  be.  By  such  methods 
further  extensions  by  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Company 
became  impossible. 

What  the  poor  settler  down  there  needed  most 
was  the  loan  of  money  on  his  claim  to  enable  him 
to  improve  it.  This  money,  but  for  Govern- 
ment interference,  would  have  been  furnished. 
The  I.  L.  and  I.  Company,  at  that  time,  was  in 
such  good  standing  financially  that  a  trust  fund 
of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  to 
be  raised  on  the  bonds  of  the  company,  and  this 
money  loaned  to  the  settler,  which  would  have 
been  the  means  of  rapidly  filling  up  and  improv- 
ing the  valley. 

Before  the  organization  of  the  Water  Users' 
Association  the  water  right  certificates  of  the 
I.  L.  and  I.  Company  passed  almost  as  current 
among  the  people,  banks  and  stores  in  Yuma, 
as  money.  After  the  Reclamation  folks  began 
their  campaign  of  extermination  to  all  private 
concerns,  those  certificates  became  discredited. 
It  did  not  take  a  prophet  to  see  that,  in  a  conflict 
between  the  United  States  Government,  in  the 
hands  of  men  drunk  with  suddenly  acquired 
power,  and  blind  to  individual  rights  and  justice, 
that  there  could  be  nothing  but  utter  ruin  to  the  . 
private  concern.  These  events  brought  out  a 
few  heroes,  men  who  avowed  a  willingness  to 
stay  with  the  private  corporation,  that  had 
pioneered  the  way,  and  gave  the  valley  its  first 
gleam  of  real  prosperity,  and  lose  all  with  that 
company  rather  than  accept  the  grace  held  out 
by  the  Reclamation  Service  as  a  reward  for 
moral  cowardice.  But  there  were  others  more 
selfish,  and  less  heroic,  who  considered  it  the  bet- 
ter part  of  valor  to  surrender  at  once  to  forces 
that  in  the  end  must  inevitably  conquer,  whether 
right  or  wrong.  And  so  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Com- 
pany was  bottled  up  like  Butler  in  Burmuda, 
unable  to  go  forward  or  backward,  with  con- 
tracts requiring  it  to  furnish  water  to  lands  con- 
stituting about  a  tenth  part  of  the  entire  irri- 
gable district — the  receipts  for  maintenance  not 
sufficient  to  pay  the  necessary  expense  of  keep- 
jng  the  system  up  to  a  proper  degree  of  efficiency, 
f&tlt  was  first  reported  that  the  Reclamation 
Service  would  put  a  dam  80  or  100  feet  high 
across  the  Colorado  River,  twenty  miles  or  more 
above  Yuma,  and  in  that  way  reclaim  many, 
thousand  acres  of  Mesa  lands,  which  could  not 
be  reached  by  canals  on  the  natural  level  of  the 
river;  and  glowing  pictures  were  held  out  of  an 
immense  power  thus  to  be  created,  which  would 
be  used  in  transportation  and  pumping  water 
on  still  higher  levels.  The  first  literature  issued 
among  the  people  in  that  valley  held  out  allur- 
ing prospects,  and  in  that  literature  and  at  public 
meetings,  it  was  broadly  .intimated  that  any 


citizen  who  would  remain  loyal  to  a  private 
irrigation  concern,  who  would  still  consider  him- 
self bound  by  any  previous  contract  with  it, 
must  be  regarded  as  an  enemy  to  his  country. 

Irrigation  in  that  valley  by  private  enterprise 
had  theretofore  looked  good  to  them.  Fifty 
thousand  acres  of  that  rich  delta  irrigated  and 
cultivated  meant  much  to  the  people  in  Yuma 
County.  But  this  prospect,  toward  the  realiza- 
tion of  which  more  than  5,000  acres  had  been 
reclaimed,  paled  into  insignificance  in  compari- 
son with  that  great  scheme  of  raising  the  Colo- 
rado River  80  or  100  feet  and  converting  it  into 
a  great  power,  and  carrying  the  water  over  the 
great  area  which  it  could  thereby  reach.  When 
the  local  enthusiasm  had  been  brought  as  high 
as  the  proposed  dam,  and  a  proper  Socialistic 
sentiment  created,  to  the  effect  that  the  Gov- 
ernment should  forcibly  take  possession  of  any- 
thing it  needed  to  promote  its  greater  enter- 
prise, and  pay  nothing  for  the  same,  the  dam 
suddenly,  and  without  comment  or  explanation, 
shrunk  down  to  one  only  ten  feet  high. 

But,  whether  ten  or  one  hundred  feet  be  the 
height  of  the  same,  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Company 
could  not  cope  with  Uncle  Sam,  and  early  sought  • 
an  opportunity  to  say  so,  and  to  ask  that  it  be 
permitted  to  retire  from  a  field  which  the  Govern- 
ment claimed  for  its  own,  and  asked  to  be  com- 
pensated for  its  outlay.  It  was  informed  that 
the  Water  Users'  Association  could  make  no 
agreement  which  would  bind  the  Government; 
neither  could  the  Reclamation  engineers.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  was  written  to  for  ad- 
vice in  the  premises.  In  this  letter  of  inquiry 
the  Secretary  was  told  of  the  efforts  made  by  the 
I.  L.  and  I.  Company  to  find  some  one  to  ne- 
gotiate with,  and  also  of  the  claim  that  one 
Morris  Bien  was  making  in  behalf  of  the  Water 
Users'  Association  that  all  appropriations  of 
water  of  the  Colorado  River  for  irrigation  pur- 
poses were  void,  because  the  river  was  a  navi- 
gable stream,  and  therefore  the  company  had 
nothing  of  value.  There  was  inclosed  to  the 
Honorable  Secretary  a  brief  given  the  president 
of  the  company,  reviewing  the  adjudications  of 
the  courts  on  the  subjects  of  appropriations  of 
water  of  navigable  streams,  and  as  to  the  extent 
of  the  title  which  the  United  States  has  in  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  States  and  Territories. 
This  letter  and  brief  were  referred  to  Mr.  Newell's 
bureau,  and  in  due  course  a  reply  came,  rebuking 
the  impertinence  of  one  who  would  deign  to  lay 
before  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  a  brief  relat- 
ing to  the  subject  of  irrigation  in  Arizona  which 
did  not  emanate  from  Morris  Bien,  who  is  an 
evolution  from  the  engineering  service  to  a  legal 
adviser  of  that  service  of  the  Government.  In 
that  brief  the  question  was  discussed  as  to  whether 
it  were  possible  for  the  waters  of  the  Colorado 
River  to  be  exempt  from  irrigation  service  by 
private  enterprise,  because  the  river  is  a  navi- 
gable stream,  but  when  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment wants  to  appropriate  the  same  water 
and  more  for  the  same  purpose,  the  river  becomes 
a  non-navigable  stream.  The  only  answer  vouch- 


32 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


safed  to  this  question  was  that  it  is  "irrele- 
vant." In  other  words,  "It's  none  of  your  busi- 
ness." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  quote  from  subse- 
quent correspondence  with  that  branch  of  the 
Government,  called  "U.  S.  Reclamation  Service," 
of  which  Mr.  Newell  is  chief,  but  lack  of  time  and 
space  forbids  to  follow  it  further  than  to  say  that 
this  correspondence  was  made  necessary  in  order 
to  find  some  one,  if  possible,  with  whom  the  I.  L. 
and  I.  Company  could  negotiate  with  preliminary 
to  its  giving  up  that  territory,  with  all  its  hopes 
and  promises,  to  the  conquerors.  In  the  course 
of  this  correspondcne  the  I.  L.  and  L  Company 
was  alleged  by  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  office 
to  have  been  accorded  a  hearing  long  prior  to  the 
time  of  this  correspondence;  with  having  gone 
into  the  district  after  the  Reclamation  engineers 
had  entered  the  field,  and  by  means  of  lapsed 
and  illegal  appropriations  of  water,  attempted 
to  obstruct  the  Government,  etc.  These  state- 
ments were  afterward  admitted  to  be  erroneous. 

An  offer  was  made  by  the  I.  L.  and  I.  Company 
to  submit  to  arbitration  the  valuation  of  its 
property,  or  to  the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Claims, 
both  of  which  were  denied,  but  instead,  a  com- 
mittee of  engineers,  in  the  selection  of  whom  it 
was  allowed  no  voice,  was  sent  down  to  view  the 
premises,  hear  evidence  and  report  to  the  Hon- 
orable Secertary  of  the  Interior.  They  reported 
that  the  system  was  a  physical  and  financial  fail- 
ure, and  recommended  the  payment  of  $45,000, 
on  condition  that  the  payee  out  of  that  amount,  . 
would  settle  for  water  certificates  issued,  amount- 
ing to  the  par  value  of  over  $130,000. 

The  eighth  section  of  the  Reclamation  Act  pro- 
vides that  the  work  to  be  done  under  it  should 
not  interfere  with  the  laws  of  any  State  or  Terri- 
tory relating  to  the  control,  appropriation,  use 
or  distribution  of  water  used  in  irrigation,  or 
any  vested  right  acquired  thereunder.  In  vain 
has  this  provision  of  the  law  been  appealed  to, 
to  protect  those  whose  money  and  labor  have 
gone  into  what  is  better  known  as  the  "Ludy 
Canal  System."  After  financial  and  physical 
success  have,  by  the  methods  above  recited,  been 
made  impossible,  this  ex  parte  committee  taunts 
the  company  with  the  fact  that  it  has  not  had 
strength  enough  to  cope  successfully  with  the 
Federal  Government  with  its  millions  of  money 
and  armies  of  men. 

Forcible  possession  has  been  taken  by  the  en- 
gineers of  lands  owned  in  fee  by  the  I.  L.  and  I. 
Company.  The  engineers  wanted  to  construct 
a  levee  along  the  river.  Under  a  provision  in 
the  patent  for  this  land,  reserving  a  right-of-way 
for  an  irrigation  canal,  the  officers  proceeded  to 
construct  the  levee,  claiming  it  to  be  one  bank 
of  a  canal. 

A  precedent  for  this  conduct  is  reported  to 
have  been  made  in  North'  Carolina,  by  an  old 
justice  of  the  peace,  who  was  applied  to  for  a 
search  warrant  by  a  man  who  had  lost  a  turkey. 
After  examining  his  form  book,  he  told  the  appli- 
cant that  he  could  not  find  a  form  for  search  war- 


rant for  a  turkey,  but  he  did  find  one  for  a  pig, 
and  he  proposed  to  issue  a  search  warrant  for  a 
pig,  and  he  said,  "while  you  are  pretending  to 
look  for  a  pig,  you  may  find  your  turkey." 

The  private  concerns  engaged  heretofore  in 
reclaiming  that  God  forsaken  desert  are  not  the 
only  sufferers  from  the  destructive  methods  used 
by  Government  Engineer  Lippincott  and  those 
under  and  over  him.  Business  stagnation  and 
bankruptcy  have  succeeded  the  era  of  activity 
and  prosperity  which  they  found  in  and  have 
driven  out  of  the  valley.  Paralyzed  by  the  pres- 
ence and  uplifted  club  of  this  Government  Go- 
liath, the  private  concerns  lack  the  heart,  means 
or  object  to  keep  their  properties  up  to  efficiency. 
Canals  and  ditches  are  becoming  overgrown  with 
willows  and  choked  with  weeds,  while  crops  are 
famishing  for  water,  and  farms  relapsing  hack 
into  desert  places.  The  owners  of  these  lands 
now  realize  they  have  let  go  the  song  bird  they  had 
in  hand  for  two  vultures  hovering  over  the  valley. 
Already  they  are  circulating  and  signing  a  pe- 
tition to  the  Government,  in  which  they  say, 
among  other  facts,  that — 

"Under  these  private  systems  of  irrigation  the 
country  was  being  rapidly  developed  up  to  the 
time  when  the  Reclamation  Service  came  into 
the  field,  and  in  fact  continued  until  the  uncer- 
tainties of  their  position  with  reference  to  a  final 
determination  of  their  rights,  the  private  com- 
panies, not  feeling  justified  in  perfecting  their 
irrigating  systems;  from  that  time  the  develop- 
ment of  the  valley  practically  ceased;  without 
a  water  supply  the  lands  would  deteriorate  and 
go  back  to  their  primitive  conditions.  These 
facts  are  self  evident." 

Many  land  holders  signed  up  with  the  Govern- 
ment only  after  being  assured  that  these  canals 
would  be  taken  over  and  operated  in  the  interim , 
and  their  rights  and  improvements  protected. 
It  is  said  that  nearly  every  man  in  the  town  of 
Yuma  and  Yuma  County  has  signed  this  petition. 

Thus  disappears  the  only  palliating  apology 
that  could  have  been  made  for  perpetrating  these 
wrongs,  vi/.,  that  if  Peter  was  being  robbed  it 
was  for  the  benefit  of  Paul.  Peter  has  not  con- 
sented to  the  robbery,  and  Paul  now  declines  to 
be  implicated,  even  as  accessory  after  the  fact. 

The  people  who  are  being  crucified  by  the  policy 
herein  criti^ed,  are  as  good  law  abiding  citizens 
as  can  be  found  in  the  whole  United  States. 
No  one  of  them,  before  this  experience,  could  have 
been  made  to  believe  that  any  department  of 
the  Federal  Government,  in  time  of  profound 
peace  at  home  and  abroad,  would  use  its  power 
in  such  way  as  to  destroy  private  property  and 
rights.  It  has  been  said  that  republics  are  un- 
grateful. If  this  conduct,  which  seems  to  meet 
the  sanction  of  Secretary  Hitchcock,  is  approved, 
it  must  be  added  that  republics  are  dishonest, 
and  that  all  our  constitutional  guarantees  of  pro- 
tection to  private  rights,  "are  as  sounding  brass 
and  tinkling  cymball."  There  is  no  better  school 
for  anarchy  than  the  oppressive  use  of  power  by 
those  who  are  called  upon  to  administer  the  af- 


OPPRESSIVE    USE    OF    POWER 


33 


fairs  of  government.  There  is  no  surer  way  to 
make  a  good  law  unpopular  than  to  make  of  it 
an  instrumentality  of  oppression  and  wrong. 
It  is  our  intention  to  furnish  later  information  in 


detail  regarding  the  work  and  methods  in  and 
around  Yuma  and  other  centers  of  Federal  ac- 

tivitv. 


The  Imperial  Daily  Standard  of  March  18,  1907,  publishes  a  statement  from  a  prominent  engi- 
neer which  has  attracted  widespread  attention.     Following  is  the  article  and  statement  in  full. 


Some  things  are  being  talked  among  eminent 
engineers  about  Laguna  dam  that  have  not  ap- 
peared in  print. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  engineers  connected 
with  irrigation  work  in  the  state,  unknown  in 
Imperial  valley,  said  a  few  days  since: 

"In  building  Laguna  dam  the  government  is 
facing  four  great  problems.  These  are: 

"Building  a  dam  without  a  foundation, 

"Constructing  an  inverted  syphon  under  the 
Gila  river, 

"  Protecting  its  conduit  system  with  dykes. 

"Making  an  economic  success  of  the  enter- 
prise. 

"I  have  talked  with  many  other  engineers  re- 
garding the  engineering  problems,  there  and  I  find 
that  among  those  who  know  the  details  of  the 
work  there  is  very  grave  fear  that  all  the  money 
being  invested  will  prove  to  have  been  wasted. 

"Laguna  dam  is  not  designed  to  store  water, 
but  to  hold  the  water  to  a  high  enough  level  to 
force  it  into  the  canals.  It  is  expected  that  silt 
will  rise  to  the  top  of  the  dam.  From  the  crest 
of  the  dam  down  to  the  river  bed  below  the  dam 
there  is  to  be  a  shoot  down  which  the  water  will 
fall  one  foot  in  twelve. 

"Now,  this  dam  is  being  built  on  the  quick- 
sand bed  of  the  river,  without  a  foundation,  and 
at  time  of  high  water  it  seems  almost  certain 
that  it  will  run  with  such  force  down  the  incline 
as  to  bore  a  deep  hole  in  the  river  bed.  This 
done,  the  dam  will  be  undermined  and  gradually 
tumble  in.  You  can  hardly  find  a  conservative 
engineer  who  will  declare  that  the  dam  will  stand 
a  single  flood,  and  a  number  of  the  most  capable 
men  connected  with  the  work  have  quit,  not  caring 
to  have  their  names  connected  with  the  work. 

"But  serious  as  is  the  problem  of  the  Laguna 
dam,  the  inverted  syphon  to  be  built  under  the 
Gila  river  presents  an  even  more  serious  problem. 
The  debris  of  a  river  bed  is  not  unlike  a  glacier, 
in  that  way  down  to  bed  rock  it  has  a  steady 
motion  down  stream.  Piles  driven  twenty  feet 
into  the  ground  have,  in  some  instances,  with  a 
single  flood,  moved  twenty  or  more  feet  down 
stream,  still  standing  erect.  To  build  a  syphon 
which  must  be  rigid,  in  the  moving  mass  of  debris 
which  composes  the  bed  of  the  Gila  river,  is  an 
engineering  task  of  the  utmost  risk,  with  the 
chances  all  on  the  side  of  failure. 

"Having  built  the  dam  and  the  syphon,  there 
remains  the  problem  of  protecting  the  canals, 


which  must  parallel  the  river  for  several  miles. 
This  is  not  the  greatest  problem,  but  it  is  one 
which  will  entail  heavy  expense. 

"The  three  problems  are  matters  of  engineer- 
ing. The  fourth  is  one  of  finance,  or  the  econom- 
ics of  irrigation. 

"When  work  was  begun  on  Laguna  dam  it  was 
estimated  that  it  would  cost  $1,000,000.  Now 
40  per  cent  of  the  work  is  completed  and  the 
$1,000,000  is  spent,  while  it  is  estimated  that  the 
contractors  lost  $400,000  on  the  work  before 
surrendering  it.  If  40  per  cent  of  the  work  cost 
the  contractors  $1,400,000,  it  is  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  the  total  cost  of  the  completed  clam 
will  be  about  $3,500,000,  and  to  this  is  to  be  added 
the  cost  of  the  inverted  syphon,  the  conduit  sys- 
tem, dykes,  etc.,  and  the  works  can  hardly  be 
co.mpleted  for  less  than  $6,000,00,  to  cover 
20,000  acres  in  California  and  50,000  acres  in 
Arizona.  This  implies  an  expense  of  $75  an 
acre  for  that  land,  which  is  not  prohibitive  exactly, 
though  it  practically  destroys  all  present  value 
in  the  land  to  be  irrigated. 

"This  money  must  be  refunded  to  the  govern- 
ment in  ten  annual  installments,  making  $7.50 
a  year  besides  the  cost  of  delivery,  which  is  esti- 
mated at  $3  an  acre  a  year.  The  farmers  under 
the  system,  if  everything  goes  well,  will  thus 
have  an  annual  water  tax  of  about  $10.50  an 
acre  a  year  for  ten  years. 

"But  if  the  dam  or  syphon  should  be  destroyed, 
as  many  of  the  best  engineers  expect,  the  cost 
of  rebuilding  must  be  added  to  the  burden  the 
farmers  will  have  to  bear,  and  this  must  prove 
destructive  to  the  farmers  dependent  on  the 
system. 

"It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  engineers  look 
on  the  Laguna  enterprise  as  the  most  hazardous 
one  undertaken  by  the  reclamation  service. 

"In  engineering  work,  as  well  as  in  all  other 
lines  of  constructive  work,  there  should  be  pro- 
vided a  wide  margin  of  safety. 

"In  its  economic  aspect  there  is  entire  absence 
of  a  margin  of  safety  in  the  Laguna  project,  and 
it  looks  as  though  the  reclamation  service  realizes 
this  fact  and  is  trying  to  force  Imperial  Valley 
to  share  the  burden. 

"The  fact  that  engineers  not  now  connected 
with  the  Laguna  enterprise,  but  who  have  been 
connected  with  it,  are  still  working  desperately 
to  this  end  shows  that  they  realize  that  their 
reputations  are  at  stake. 


34 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


"You  know  as  well  as  anybody  that  some  one 
is  hiring  men  to  carry  on  a  propaganda  in  Imperial 
valley  in  behalf  of  the  government  project.  No 
one  knows  who  is  paying  the  salaries  of  these 
secret  service  men.  It  is  not  probable  that  they 
are  being  paid  out  of  government  funds,  and  it 
is  only  a  matter  of  conjecture  who  is  paying  them. 
It  must  be  some  one  or  more  persons  who  are 
willing  to  sacrifice  Imperial  valley  to  prevent  the 
Laguna  dam  project  becoming  the  greatest  en- 
gineering fiasco  of  the  West. 

"If  you  take  the  trouble  to  check  up  the  mat- 
ter, you  will  find  that  the  plan  as  outlined  im- 
plies placing  on  Imperial  valley  about  88  per 
cent,  of  the  cost  of  the  Laguna  .project.  By 
bringing  400,000  acres  of  Imperial  valley  land 
under  Laguna  dam,  there  would  be  provided  a 
margin  of  safety  for  the  project,  for  your  valley 
could  if  necessary  pay  for  the  rebuilding  of  the 
dam  several  times  if  it  should  go  out  repeatedly. 
Of  course,  it  doesn't  matter  whether  you  need 
Laguna  dam  or  not.  The  question  is  whether 
you  will  pay  for  it." 

The  engineer  who  expressed  himself  as  above 
cast  considerable  light  on  the  situation. 

It  is  true  that  the  reclamation  project  is  a  dead 
issue  with  the  people  of  this  valley.  They  only 


give  it  thought  when  the  spies  of  the  service  try 
to  force  it  on  public  attention.  But  every  few 
days  there  is  some  development  to  indicate  that 
the  men  whose  reputations  are  at  stake  on  La- 
guna dam  are  still  at  work. 

The  most  active  of  these  enemies  of  the  valley 
evidently  is  J.  B.  Lippincott  of  Los  Angeles. 
Mr.  Lippincott  has  no  interest  in  this  valley. 
He  has  no  interest  in  Laguna  dam  aside  from  his 
former  connection  with  it,  and  yet  he  is  quietly 
and  persistently  working  to  force  this  valley 
under  the  reclamation  service. 

Mr.  Lippincott  is  in  the  employ  of  Los  Angeles 
city.  One  would  naturally  think  he  would  have 
enough  to  do  to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  Owens 
river,  without  meddling  where  he  has  no  right 
to  interfere. 

Then  one  would  think  that  the  people  of  Lo& 
Angeles  would  object  to  an  employe  of  that  city 
following  a  policy  of  bitter  antagonism  to  a 
country  like  Imperial  valley,  which  should  be  on 
friendly  terms  with  Los  Angeles.  The  attitude 
of  this  engineer  comes  dangerously  near  putting 
official  Los  Angeles  at  warfare  with  the  farmers 
of  Imperial  valley,  and  it  seems  to  the  Standard 
that  the  people  of  Los  Angeles  can  hardly  afford 
to  allow  that  condition  of  affairs  to  continue. 


Prosperity  vs.  Stagnation 


Ranch  and  family  of  W.  E.  Wilsey,  4  miles  southwest 
of  Imperial. 


Ranch  of  O.  P.  Bondessen,  Preside!  of  Yutna  County 
Water  Users  Association,  near  Summerton,  12  miles  south 
of  Yuma. 


The    Reclamation    Service    Scored    by    the 
Los  Angeles  Times 


No  paper  on  the  Pacific  Coast  has  watched  the  progress  of  work  in  the  Reclamation  of  the  great 
Colorado  desert  and  the  control  of  the  waters  of  the  great  Colorado  River  more  closely  and  more  in- 
telligently than  has  the  Los  Angeles  Times.  Allen  Kelly,  a  very  competent  writer  on  the  editorial 
staff  of  that  paper  has  made  many  trips  to  the  Imperial  Valley  and  up  and  down  the  Colorado  river 
to  keep  track  of  the  work  being  done  by  the  Reclamation  Service  and  others  in  connection  with  that 
great  work'  In  the  issue  of  the  Times  of  June  30,  1907,  Mr.  Kelly  gives  the  public  a  statement  of 
the  situation  at  that  time,  giving  commendation  and  criticism  where  they  belong,  and  treats  the 
subject  so  intelligently  and  fairly  that  the  article,  although  a  lengthy  one,  is  given  here  in  full. 

The  criticisms  of  the  Reclamation  officials  confirm  fully  the  charges  made  in  this  pamphlet  and 
justify  the  Yuma  Valley  Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  and  the  settlers  of  the  Yuma  Valley 
in  the  course  they  are  pursuing  in  their  efforts  to  get  justice  at  the  hands  of  the  Government.  Fol- 
lowing is  the  article  in  full: 


IMPERIAL  VALLEY 

FULLY  PROTECTED 


Greatest  Flood  Ever  Known  in  the 
Colorado  Makes  No  Impression  on 
Col.  Randolph's  Levee — River  Scour- 
ing Out  Its  Old  Channel. 


BY    ALLEN     KELLY 

The  dams  and  levee  built  by  Epes  Randolph 
and  his  aids  to  close  the  break  of  the  Colorado 
River  and  protect  the  Imperial  country  from 
another  invasion  by  the  runaway  river  have 
stood  the  test  of  the  greatest  June  flood  on  record 
wihout  developing  the  slightest  weakness,  and 
the  Imperial  Valley  is  absolutely  safe. 

When  I  met  Thomas  Hind,  the  engineer  in 
charge,  at  the  lower  heading,  where  the  big 
break  occured  and  was  closed  in  the  very  teeth 
of  the  furious  river,  and  asked  how  matters 
stood,  he  replied:  "All  right,  except  that  we 
haven't  had  enough  water,  I'd  like  to  see  the 
river  five  feet  higher  before  I  leave  the  levee." 

And  that  was  not  bombast.  He  meant  it 
seriously.  I  went  over  every  foot  of  the  fifteen 
miles  of  levee,  from  the  upper  heading,  where 
the  water  comes  into  the  Imperial  Canal,  to  where 
the  last  load  of  gravel  was  dumped  at  the  end  of 


the  embankment  on  the  Paradones,  and  then  I 
understood  why  Thomas  Hind  yearned  for 
higher  water  in  the  Colorado. 

Although  the  river  has  been  discharging  past 
Yuma  the  greatest  volume  of  water  recorded  in 
thirty  years,  the  flood  has  barely  wetted  the  lower 
part  of  the  levee,  and  in  some  places  never  has 
touched  the  bank  at  all.  A  five-foot  rise  would 
not  endanger  the  work,  but  it  would  pack  and 
solidify  the  bank  and  demonstrate  the  invul- 
nerability of  the  Imperial  Valley's  defenses. 

SAFETY  ASSURED. 

The  builders  of  the  dams  and  levee  never  had 
any  fear  that  the  river  would  carry  them  away 
or  make  a  break  in  them.  They  only  feared  that 
a  great  flood  might  go  around  the  end  of  the  levee 
and  attack  the  canal  in  the  rear,  but  the  Colo- 
rado itself  has  averted  that  possible  danger  by 
deepening  its  old  channel  and  swinging  it  over 
toward  the  Arizona  side. 

The  Randolph  levee  is  not  parallel  with  the 
river,  and  does  not  act  as  a  retaining  bank  to 
choke  the  flood  into  a  narrow  bed.  From  the 
end  of  the  rock  dam,  which  closed  the  break, 
the  levee  turns  sharply  away  from  the  river, 
leaving  a  wide  expanse  of  timbered  bottom  land 
between  itself  and  the  river  bank. 

The  lower  end  of  the  levee  is  five  miles  from 
the  river.  When  the  Colorado  overflows,  it  does 
not  rush  in  swift  flood  against  the  levee,  but 
spreads  out  into  a  wide  and  shallow  lake  in  the 
woods.  Although  the  fall  of  the  land  is  about 


36 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


three  feet  to  a  mile,  the  heavy  growth  of  cotton- 
wood  and  underbrush  retards  the  flood  and  re- 
duces its  velocity.  If  the  levee  were  close  to  the 
bank  and  parallel  to  the  government  levees  on  the 
Arizona  side,  the  river  would  be  confined,  and  the 
levees  would  have  to  resist  direct  pressure  and 
erosion.  As  the  problem  was  not  protection  of 
bottom  lands  from  overflow,  but  was,  rather,  pre- 
vention of  the  cutting  of  a  new  channel  into  the 
Alamo,  the  engineers  were  not  obliged  to  fight 
the  river  at  close  quarters.  They  could  retreat, 
draw  the  enemy  into  the  forest,  where  he  could 
not  mass  his  forces,  and  beat  him  in  detail. 

THE  COLORADO  TAMED. 

That  the  overflow  did  not  pass  around  the  end 
of  the  levee  and  break  back  toward  the  channel 
which  was  cut  last  year  is  a  fact  accounted  for 
by  the  renewed  vigor  with  which  the  Colorado 
has  set  itself  at  work  to  dig  a  deep  way  to  the 
Gulf.  It  is  as  if  the  yellow  monster  admitted 
itself  baffled  in  its  attempt  to  devour  the  Im- 
perial Valley  and  rush  on  to  Salton  Sea,  and  were 
working  off  its  wrathful  energy  in  a  headlong 
rush  to  the  Gulf. 

The  old  channel,  which  shoaled  rapidly  and 
nearly  filled  with  silt  while  the  river  was  running 
to  Salton,  has  been  scoured  tremendously  by 
this  year's  flood.  Evidence  of  the  deepening  of 
the  old  river  bed  is  found  in  the  figures  relating 
to  height  of  water  at  Yuma  and  the  lower  head- 
ing, and  to  volume  of  discharge. 

Since  1904,  the  volume  of  discharge  has  been 
greater  than  before  by  from  50  to  75  per  cent. 
The. highest  water  in  1904  was  26.5  feet  at  Yuma, 
and  the  greatest  discharge  was  51,050  second 
feet  on  June  25  of  that  year,  when  the  gauge 
reading  was  26  feet.  The  gauge  does  not  mark 
the  depth  of  water  in  the  river;  it  marks  the 
height  of  the  surface  above  an  established  datum 
level.  The  bed  or  bottom  of  the  river  changes 
greatly  in  level,  as  it  silts  or  scours,  and  there 
may  be  deeper  water  when  the  surface  level  is 
twenty-six  feet  than  when  it  is  thirty  feet.  The 
volume  of  water  passing  Yuma  is  indicated  in 
the  figures  showing  discharge  in  second  feet, 
which  means  so  many  cubic  feet  of  water  passing 
a  point  in  one  second. 

On  March  20,  1905,  the  Yuma  gauge  read- 
ing was  30.3  feet,  and  the  discharge  was 
110,842  second  feet  or  5,542,100  miner's  in- 
ches. On  June  19,  1905,  the  height  was  29.15 
feet,  but  the  discharge  was  only  94,319 
second  feet,  showing  that  the  channel  had 
silted  up  considerably  in  the  meantime.  On 
November  30,  1905,  came  the  sudden  "flash 
rise"  of  the  Gila,  bringing  the  Yuma  gauge 
reading  up  from  19  feet  to  31.3  feet  in  four  days, 
and  the  discharge  up  to  102,700  second  feet.  It 
will  be  seen  that  while  the  water  rose  just  a  foot 
higher  than  the  flood  of  March  20,  the  volume 
of  water  was  less  by  more  than  8,000  second  feet, 
the  difference  being  due  to  filling  up  of  the  chan- 
nel with  silt  during  the  low-water  period  inter- 


vening.    The  November  flood  .was  of  short  du- 
ration and  did  not  scour  the  channel  much. 

In  June,  1906,  there  was  some  scouring.  On 
June  3,  the  height  was  28.8  feet,  and  the  dis- 
charge was  84,200  second  feet.  On  June  27, 
the  discharge  reached  the  maximum  for  the  sea- 
son of  99,200  second  feet,  but  the  height  was  only 
28.1  feet.  During  the  three  years  1904-5-6  there 
were  but  two  days  in  succession  of  more  than  100,- 
000  second  feet  discharge. 

This  year  the  June  flood  has  been  the  great- 
est in  volume  ever  recorded,  the  discharge  having 
been  above  100,000  second  feet  for  ten  success- 
ive days  up  to  June  26. 

Here  is  proof  of  the  scouring  and  deepening 
of  the  Colorado  at  Yuma  and  below:  On  June 
4  the  gauge  at  Yuma  showed  29.2  feet,  and  the 
discharge  was  77,700  second  feet.  On  June  8 
the  discharge  increased  to  80,100  second  feet, 
but  the  river  surface  had  fallen  to  27.4  feet. 
On  June  22,  the  gauge  showed  29.1  feet,  a  tenth 
less  than  on  June  4,  but  the  discharge  was  108,- 
000  second  feet,  proving  that  the  river  had  deep- 
ened and  that  the  velocity  had  increased.  During 
the  week  from  June  17  to  June  24,  more  water 
passed  Yuma  than  ever  before  in  the  same  length 
of  time  since  records  were  kept.  But  for  the 
deepening  of  the  channel,  the  water  would  have 
risen  to  32  or  33  feet  and  perhaps  higher. 

That  the  river  has  deepened  its  old  channel 
opposite  the  former  break  at  the  Lower  Heading 
is  shown  also  by  comparison  of  figures.  On  March 
8,  1907,  the  height  at  Yuma  was  27.4  feet  and 
the  discharge  68,700  second  feet.  The  height 
of  water  above  the  Hind-Clarke  dam  was  115.36 
feet  above  sea  level,  the  datum  level  adopted. 
On  June  4  Yuma  gauge  29.2  and  discharge  77,- 
700  second  feet,  the  height  at  the  dam  was  115.7. 
On  June  8,  with  a  discharge  of  80,100  second 
feet,  the  height  at  the  dam  was  only  114.  On 
June  22,  with  a  discharge  of  108,000  second  feet, 
the  height  was  only  114.9.  The  water  at  the 
Lower  Heading  was  five  and  a  half  inches  higher 
'  on  March  8  than  on  June  22,  although  the  river 
was  carrying  nearly  40,000  second  feet,  or  2,- 
000,000  miners'  inches,  less  water.  Obviously, 
the  old  river  bed  has  been  scoured,  so  that  its 
carrying  capacity  is  almost  doubled. 

A  MODEL  LEVEE. 

The  absolute  safety  of  the  Randolph  levee  is 
shown  in  the  facts  that  its  lowest  point  has  been 
seven  feet  above  the  highest  water  in  a  season 
of  unprecedented  flood  of  the  Colorado,  and  that 
not  a  stroke  of  work  was  required  to  strengthen, 
repair  or  protect  the  bank.  The  levee  is  a  model 
of  thorough,  substantial  construction.  It  was 
built  by  railroad  men,  not  by  theoretical  engineers, 
and  in  some  important  features  it  violates  the 
laws  laid  down  by  the  formalists,  laws  which 
take  no  account  of  differences  in  conditions. 

The  levee  is  an  embankment,  nine  feet  high 
above  the  ground  level  and  ten  feet  wide  on  the 
top,  built  of  the  natural  soil  and  covered  with  a 
layer  of  coarse  gravel  a  foot  or  more  in  thick- 


RECLAMATION    SERVICE    SCORED    BY  THE   LOS  ANGELES    TIMES 


37 


ness.  There  is  a  "muck  trench,"  six  feet  wide 
on  the  bottom,  under  the  levee.  The  books  say 
that  a  muck  trench,  which  is  an  excavation 
back-filled  with  thoroughly  mixed  and  puddled 
sand  and  clay,  should  be  under  the  outer  or 
river-ward  slope  of  the  levee.  The  railroad  men 
made  their  muck  trench  under  the  inner  or  land- 
ward slope,  thereby  incurring  the  derisive  criti- 
cism of  young  engineers  of  the  Reclamation 
Service. 

APPLIED  COMMON  SENSE. 

The  railroad  men,  having  little  reverence  for 
formulas,  and  defining  engineering  as  "applied 
common  sense,"  reasoned  that  an  impervious 
bank  on  the  river  side  would  keep  water  from 
ever  getting  to  the  inner  side  of  the  foundation, 
and  therefore  that  portion  of  the  work  would 
remain  dry  and  loose,  whereas  a  muck  trench 
under  the  inner  slope  would  perform  its  func- 
tion of  preventing  water  from  passing  through 
the  foundation  and  at  the  same  time  permit 
the  first  high  water  to  soak  into  and  puddle  the 
outer  section  of  the  levee,  making  the  entire 
foundation  as  solid  as  if  the  entire  width  had  been 
muck-ditched  originally. 

The  railroad  men  took  into  account  the  char- 
acter of  material  in  which  they  worked  and  the 
conditions  which  confronted  them.  Their  levee, 
not  being  close  to  and  parallel  with  the  river, 
is  not  exposed  to  the  erosive  action  of  a  swift 
flood  current.  The  water  rises  slowly  against 
its  face  and  soaks  in  instead  of  rushing  along 
and  wearing  away  the  slope.  The  heavy  timber 
and  brush,  covering  the  bottom  lands  right  up  to 
the  foot  of  the  bank,  prevents  wave  action  and 
checks  the  current.  A  levee  along  a  river  bank 
is  exposed  to  different  conditions. 

TRADITION  IGNORED. 

In  another  feature  of  construction  the  rail- 
road men  went  contrary  to  engineering  tradition 
and  precedent,  and  for  good  reasons.  They 
made  their  "borrow  pits"  inside  instead  of  out- 
side the  levee.  Those  pits  are  the  excavations 
from  which  earth  is  "borrowed"  for  building  the 
embankment.  Where  the  function  of  a  levee 
is  protection  of  lowland  from  overflow,  the  land 
being  valuable  and  usable  right  up  to  the  levee, 
there  are  reasons  for  taking  material  preferably 
from  the  river  side.  In  this  case,  the  function 
of  the  levee  is  prevention  of  channel-cutting  by 
a  runaway  flood,  and  the  lands  to  be  protected 
are  many  miles  away. 

It  was  of  vital  importance  to  the  builders  that 
the  work  should  go  on  during  a  flood  season. 
If  they  took  their  material  from  outside,  the  first 
overflow  would  stop  the  work  and  the  levee  could 
not  be  raised  to  meet  the  rising  waters,  whereas 
if  the  borrow  pits  were  inside,  men  and  teams 
could  continue  work  regardless  of  the  overflow. 
By  leaving  a  bench  or  "berm"  forty  feet  wide 
along  the  inner  foot  of  the  levee  and  between  the 
bank  and  the  borrow  pits,  the  excavations  would 
not  weaken  the  bank  or  affect  it  in  any  way,  and 


if  they  should  be  filled  by  seepage  no  harm  would 
be  done.  Outside  borrow  pits,  on  the  other 
hand,  take  away  the  protection  afforded  by  tim- 
ber and  brush,  break  up  the  compact  surface 
soil  and  invite  the  formation  of  erosive  currents 
and  eddies  against  the  face  of  the  levee. 

EXPERIENCE  AND  THEORY. 

Col.  Randolph  and  his  aids  have  had  much  ex- 
•perience  in  building  railroad  embankments  and 
in  fighting  rivers,  and  what  they  know  about 
such  work  they  have  learned  by  doing  it  and  not 
from  school  text  books.  They  applied  their 
experience  and  common  sense  to  the  job,  and  the 
young  engineers  of  the  Reclamation  Service 
jeered  and  raged  at  their  inside  borrow  pits.  All 
the  levees  constructed  by  those  young  men  have 
outside  borrow  pits,  and  it  costs  a  heap  of  money 
to  protect  the  pits  and  prevent  the  currents 
induced  by  them  from  destroying  the  levees. 
And  the  money  and  the  frantic  hustling  when 
high  water  comes  do  not  always  avail.  The 
government  levees  on  the  Arizona  side  of  the 
Colorado,  for  example,  are  broken  in  many  places 
and  cannot  be  repaired  until  the  flood  subsides. 
Had  the  work  on  the  Southern  Pacific  levees 
been  done  according  to  government  plans  from 
the  start,  it  would  not  have  been  completed  at 
all,  and  today  the  railroad  men  would  be  fighting 
another  break  of  the  Colorado  and  the  Imperial 
Valley  would  be  in  greater  peril  than  it  was  a 
year  ago. 

The  Reclamation  Service  engineers  did  succeed 
partially  in  their  persistent  efforts  to  interfere 
with  and  "boss"  Col.  Randolph's  job.  They  first 
declared  that  it  was  impossible  to  close  the  break 
of  the  Colorado  with  a  rock-fill  dam.  They  went 
on  record  with  positive  predictions  of  the  utter 
failure  of  Col.  Randolph's  work.  It  was  not 
being  done  according  to'  the  text-books  and  the 
formula,  and  therefore  it  could  not  be  done 
successfully.  But  it  was  done  to  their  chagrin 
and  disappointment.  The  impossible  was  ac- 
complished. The  most  remarkable  engineer- 
ing feat  on  recod  was  achieved  by  the  practical 
railroad  men,  who  presumed  to  ignore  the  ad- 
vice of  Uncle  Sam's  talented  young  engineers. 

GOVERNMENT  INTERFERENCE. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  lesson  would 
be  heeded  and  that  the  Reclamation  Service 
would  abstain  from  further  meddling  with  the 
Imperial  Valley  protective  work  and  attend  to 
its  own  perplexing  problem  of  the  Laguna  dam. 
But  the  brilliant  young  men  could  not  keep 
their  hands  off.  Those  borrow  pits  still  worried 
them,  and  they  got  in  their  work  through  Wash- 
ington and  New  York. 

Presumably  it  was  represented  to  Mr.  Harri- 
man  that  the  government  would  take  the  levee 
off  his  hands  and  pay  him  for  the  work,  but  only 
on  condition  that  the  work  remaining  to  be  done 
should  be  in  accordance  with  government  plans. 
On  the  very  heels  of  Col.  Randolph's  triumphant 


38 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


success,  which  discredited  all  the  predictions 
and  recommendations  of  the  government  en- 
gineers, came  positive  orders  from  Harriman 
that  in  the  remainder  of  the  levee  work  the 
borrow  pits  should  be  outside. 

The  railroad  engineers  protested,  expostulated 
and  explained,  but  to  no  purpose.  The  order 
was  curt  and  positive,  and  it  had  to  be  obeyed. 

CONDEMNED  FOOLISHNESS. 

For  the  last  three  or  four  miles  of  levee  work, 
the  borrow  pits  are  outside,  and  there  the  only 
evidences  of  tendency  to  induce  currents,  eddies 
and  erosion  anywhere  along  the  levee  are  seen. 
The  protective  growth  was  destroyed  and  the 
firmer  portion  of  the  soil  was  removed,  exposing 
to  the  water  a  bed  of  silt  that  dissolves  like  salt. 
Col.  Randolph  inspected  the  finished  levee  a  few 
days  ago,  and  when  he  saw  the  outside  borrow 
pits  and  evidences  of  their  weakening  effect  he 
said:  "That  is  the  damndest  foolishness  I  ever 
saw." 

But  that  was  not  all  the  foolishness.  The 
government  engineers  recommended  and  Harri- 
man ordered  the  construction,  inside  the  levee, 
of  spur  banks,  500  feet  apart,  at  right  angles  to 
the  levee,  300  feet  ong,  50  feet  wide  on  top,  and 
four  feet  high.  The  theory  was  that  in  the  event 
of  a  break  in  the  levee,  the  outer  ends  of  two  of 
the  spurs  could  be  connected  to  form  a  bay  and 
check  the  flood.  That  is  office  theory.  Prac- 
tical common  sense  says  that  it  would  be  no  more 
difficult  to  stop  the  break  at  the  levee  than  to 
build  a  new  bank  between  the  ends  of  the  spurs. 
Also,  the  construction  of  the  spurs  would  involve 
the  moving  of  more  material  than  was  placed  in 
the  levee  itself,  and  would  cost  more.  It  would 
be  easier  and  less  expensive  to  double  the  width 
of  the  levee  or  to  build  another  parallel  levee 
inside  the  first.  The  spurs  are  equivalent  to 
building  1100  feet  of  bank  to  protect  500  feet 
of  the  levee. 

The  recommendation  was  so  absurd  that  Ran- 
dolph ignored  the  order  and  kept  his  whole  force 
at  work  finishing  the  levee.  A  week  or  ten  days 
ago,  the  Reclamation  Service  engineers  met  at 
Yuma  and  gravely  rescinded  their  recommenda- 
tion. 

OBJECT  LESSONS. 

The  intact,  unthreatened  rock  dam  and  gravel 
covered  levee  built  by  the  railroad  men  is  a 
standing  rebuke  to  officious  meddlers  and  kin- 
dergarten engineers.  Across  the  river,  govern- 
ment levees  riddled  and  torn,  flooded  ranches, 
wrecked  irrigation  systems  and  rich  farming 
districts  put  out  of  business  for  years  by  failure 
of  the  Reclamation  Service  to  make  good  its 
promises,  emphasize,  by  contrast  with  the  em- 
pire saved  by  Col.  Randolph  and  his  builders, 
the  difference  between  official  and  private 
methods  of  doing  things. 

From  the  headgate  to  the  end  of  the  Randolph 
levee  a  railroad  has  been  laid  upon  the  top — 
not  a  makeshift  construction  track,  but  a  thor- 
oughly built,  well-ballasted  railway  fit  for  the 


heaviest  traffic.  A  telephone  line  runs  the  whole 
length,  with  stations  a  mile  apart.  When  the 
water  is  high,  men  patrol  the  levee  in  gasoline 
track  automobiles,  arid  if  danger  threatens  they 
can  telephone  to  the  heading,  where  a  trainload 
of  rock  stands,  ready  to  be  rushed  to  the  breach. 
Heavy  gravel  trains  passing  frequently  over  the 
line  have  helped  greatly  in  making  the  levee 
solid.  The  work  is  absolutely  secure,  but  the 
builders  have  taken  no  chances  during  the  Hood 
season. 

In  a  few  days,  the  camp  will  be  broken,  the 
engineers  will  leave,  and  only  a  few  men  will 
remain  to  patrol  and  watch  the  levee.  All  hands 
could  have  gone  to  the  beaches  three  months  ago, 
but  the  force  was  kept  on  the  ground  as  an  ex- 
treme precaution  and  an  assurance  to  the  settlers 
of  Imperial  Valley. 

WHERE    OFFICIALISM    FAILED. 

An  attempt  to  examine  the  effects  of  the  flood 
upon  the  levees  on  the  Arizona  side  below  Yuma 
was  not  wholly  successful.  The  levees  broke 
in  March,  and  they  are  still  broken.  Water  has 
flowed  in  behind  them,  flooding  the  roads  and 
farms,  and  it  is  impossible  to  reach  the  levees- 
from  the  country  roads  remaining  passable. 
Four  or  five  miles  below  Yuma,  the  road  nearest 
the  river  ends  abruptly  at  a  break.  Below  that 
point  everything  is  a  disorderly  tangle  of  sloughs, 
pools  and  flooded  lands. 

The  Reclamation  Service  undertook  to  take 
care  of  that  country,  took  charge  of  the  private 
irrigation  systems  and  promised  to  protect  them 
and  supply  the  ranchers  with  water.  Because 
of  the  failure  to  complete  the  Laguna  dam,  the 
government  has  been  unable  to  keep  its  promise, 
the  irrigation  canals  are  wrecked  and  many  farm- 
ers are  ruined.  The  Reclamation  Service  could 
not  do  what  it  planned  with  the  best  of  intentions. 

CROSSING  THE  GILA. 

I  drove  from  Yuma  to  Laguna  dam  on  the 
Arizona  side  in  the  night,  crossing  the  dry  bed 
of  the  Gila  and  keeping  well  back  from  the  Colo- 
rado to  avoid  the  overflow  and  back-water 
sloughs.  There  was  some  water  on  the  road, 
and  at  one  place  the  horses  hesitated  to  go  through 
a  black,  forbidding  lagoon.  Being  urged,  they 
plunged  in,  and  a  most  awful  stench  arose  from 
the  disturbed  pool.  The  water  had  been  there r 
doubtless,  for  two  or  three  years,  and  it  was  utterly 
rotten.  It  smelled  like  a  dead  whale.  Also  it 
was  deep  enough  to  flow  through  the  buggy  box. 
The  noisome  pool  recalled  to  mind  the  awful  bog 
which  engulfed  Carver  Doone. 

Avoiding  the  water  on  the  return  trip  resulted 
in  wandering  for  several  miles  through  dense 
brush  and  final  extrication  by  striking  the  Gila 
levee  and  using  its  crest  as  a  road. 

Where  the  bottoms  were  overflowed  two  years 
ago,  a  dense  growth  has  sprung  up,  demonstrat- 
ing the  remarkable  fertility  of  Colorado  silt. 
In  less  than  two  years,  cottonwood  trees  have 
grown,  on  land  that  was  as  bare  as  a  floor,  to  a 


RECLAMATION    SERVICE    SCORED    BY   THE  LOS  ANGELES  TIMES 


39 


height  of  twenty  feet  and  a  thickness  of  five  and 
six  inches  at  the  butt.  Similar  growth  has 
started  already  back  of  the  Clarke-Hind  dam, 
where  the  flood  raged  on  its  way  to  Salton  Sea 
last  January. 

LAGUNA    DAM    THREATENED. 

No  destx  action  has  been  caused  by  the  flood 
to  the  works  at  Laguna  dam,  but  construction 
has  been  suspended  and  will  not  be  resumed 
until  September.  The  escape  was  a  narrow  one, 
however.  The  danger  point  is  on  the  California 
side,  where  the  river  rushes  into  a  bend  above 
the  dam  and  then  swings  outward  toward  the 
open  way  between  the  dam  ends. 

When  the  flood  was  at  its  highest,  the  bank 
protecting  the  work  was  washed  away  while  the 
working  force  was  at  dinner.  The  men  came  out 
to  find  the  railway  track  fallen  into  the  river, 
and  but  a  few  inches  of  dirt  remaining  to  keep  the 
water  out  of  the  excavation  below  the  cement 
walls.  An  alarm  was  given  by  all  the  steam 
whistles  on  the  works,  and  everybody  rushed  to 
the  breach,  laborers,  engineers,  clerks,  storekeep- 
ers, train  crews  and  vagrant  Indians.  By  furious 
work  the  breach  was  closed  before  the  last  de- 
fenses gave  way,  and  the  dam  was  saved.  The 
track  has  been  replaced,  and  continuous  dumping 
of  rock  repairs  the  damage  done  by  the  rushing 
waters. 

All  the  excavations  are  flooded  with  still  water, 
engines,  derricks  and  pumps  are  submerged,  and 
there  is  nothing  doing  at  Laguna  but  protectiv 
work.  Since  the  contractors  threw  up  the  job 
and  sold  their  plant  to  the  government,  consider- 
able progress  has  been  made  in  the  construction 
of  cement  core  walls,  but  there  is  a  wide  gap  to  be 
closed,  and  the  hardest  work  will  come  when  that 
is  attempted.  Whether  or  not  the  dam  will 
survive  a  Colorado  River  flood  is  a  question  that 
nobody  can  answer  with  certainty.  That  the 
cement  core  walls  will  be  an  element  of  strength 
is  generally  doubted,  because  the  menace  to  the 
dam  is  not  pressure  from  above,  but  cutting  at 
the  foot  of  the  apron. 

AN  ENGINEERING  MYSTERY. 

No  engineer  has  yet  given  a  convincing  reason 
why  the  cement  walls  are  introduced  in  the  dam, 
or  shown  that  they  serve  any  purpose  other  than 
the  consumption  of  funds.  Why  a  rock  fill, 
similar  to  that  which  closed  the  Colorado  break, 
would  not  solve  the  problem  of  the  Laguna  dam, 
nobody  has  yet  explained.  Such  a  structure 
could  be  completed  in  one  season  and  for  a  million 
or  so  less  than  the  cost  of  the  dam  now  being  built, 
and  it  would  stay.  That  is  the  opinion  of  many 
engineers  and  of  railroad  men  who  have  proved 
their  right  to  have  an  opinion  on  the  subject. 

Up  to  date  the  Laguna  dam  and  the  Yuma 
project  are  problems  to  be  solved,  and  they  are 
not  working  out  as  they  were  planned.  In  time 
arid  in  money,  the  w^ork,  which  is  not  half  done, 
has  exceeded  the  total  estimates,  and  since  the 
job  was  bound  up  with  government  red  tape, 


nobody  ha^  been  able  to  figure  out  when  the  dam 
will  be  done,  or  what  it  will  cost. 

DIFFERENCE  IN  METHODS. 

An  illustration  of  government  methods,  as 
contrasted  with  private  control,  occurs  to  mind. 
When  an  employe  of  the  contractors  was  injured 
on  the  work,  he  received  free  treatment  in  hos- 
pital, wages  wrhile  disabled  and  an  indemnity , 
if  permanently  injured.  One  of  the  government 
employes  was  badly  hurt  some  time  ago,  and  is 
still  in  hospital.  His  pay  stopped  the  instant 
he  was  hurt,  and  he  got  only  five  hours'  wages 
for  that  day.  He  does  not  get  a  cent  while  in 
hospital,  and  every  man  on  the  works  is  assessed 
a  dollar  a  month  to  maintain  the  hospital  and  pay 
the  doctor. 

The  people  of  Arizona,  especially  those  whose 
farming  operations  have  been  suspended  by  the 
failure  of  the  government  to  keep  up  irrigation 
works  taken  over  by  the  Reclamation  Service, 
the  settlers  of  Imperial  Valley,  and  all  others 
interested  hope  that  the  Laguna  dam  will  be  a  suc- 
cess. But  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  why  the 
Imperial  Valley  refuses  to  .hand  over  its  canal 
and  its  lands  to  the  Reclamation  Service,  and 
prefers  to  rely  upon  the  railroad's  practical  levee 
builders  for  protection. 

Col.  Randolph's  work  has  been  tested  by  the 
greatest  flood  that  ever  came  down  the  Colorado,, 
a  flood  sufficient  to  cover  800  acres  a  foot  deep 
with  water  every  hour,  and  Imperial  Valley  is 
absolutely  safe.  Between  30,000  and  40,000 
miner's  inches  of  water  is  passing  through  one 
bay  of  the  cement  headgate  into  the  Imperial 
Canal,  the  other  ten  bays  being  closed  tight. 

The  lagoon  between  the  Hind-Clarke  dam  and 
the  river  is  filling  up  with  silt,  the  bars  even  now 
showing  above  the  water,  where  last  winter  were 
whirling  torrents  and  rushing  floods.  In  another 
season  or  two,  there  will  be  hardly  so  much  as  a 
scar  left  to  show  where  the  Colorado  tore  through 
its  banks. 

SALTON   SEA. 

Water  is  still  flowing  into  Salton  Sea  by  way 
of  New  River.  It  goes  down  the  Paradones  from 
the  Colorado  to  Volcano  Lake,  and  thence  a  part 
flows  northward  through  New  River  and  a  part 
southward  by  way  of  the  Hardy  Colorado  to  the 
Gulf.  The  inflow  to  Salton  Sea,  is  now  about 
1500  second  feet,  and  apparently  it  is  sufficient 
to  compensate  for  evaporation,  as  there  is  no 
perceptible  subsidence  of  Salton  Sea.  The  in- 
flow does  no  injury  to  Imperial  Valley,  however, 
Salton  Sea  probably  is  a  permanent  institution; 
at  least,  it  can  be  kept  at  about  its  present  level, 
or  preferably  a  little  lower  for  safety  of  the  rail- 
way, with  little  trouble  and  no  harm,  and  it 
surely  tempers  the  desert  wind  to  the  settler  and 
to  the  traveler.  The  water  is  full  of  fish,  and  the 
shores  of  the  sea  are  haunted  by  hosts  of  aquatic 
birds.  Some  day  there  will  be  winter  resorts  on 
the  western  shore  of  the  sea,  under  the  shelter 
of  the  mountains,  in  the  finest  winter  climate 
in  the  world,  and  steamboats  will  ply  from  the 
railroad  to  hotel  landings. 


Miscellaneous  Articles  and  Statements  Explanatory  of 
the  Situation  as  Between  the  Settlers  in  the 
Yuma   Valley    and    the    Reclama- 
tion Service  Officials 


Following  is  a  collection  of  articles  which  present  various  phases  of  the  question  at  issue  be 
tween  tne  Yuma  Valley  Settlers  and  the  Reclamation  Service  which  will  be  of  interest  to  those  who 
are  seeking  to  obtain  the  facts  of  the  case: 


THE    SCOPE    OF    RECLAMATION    SERVICE 
WORK  AS  PROVIDED   BY  LAW. 

It  seems  that  a  careful  reading  of  the  law  of 
June,  1902,  providing  for  the  reclamation  of  arid 
lands  that  the  Reclamation  Service  are  doing 
work  not  contemplated  by  the  law  creating  that 
service.  Section  8  reads  as  follows: 

"Section  8.  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be 
construed  as  affecting  or  intended  to  affect  or 
to  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  laws  of  any  state 
or  territory  relating  to  the  control,  appropria- 
tion, use  or  distribution  of  water  used  in  irriga- 
tion, or  any  vested  right  acquired  thereunder, 
and  the  secretary  of  the  interior,  in  carrying  out 
the  provisions  of  this  act,  shall  proceed  in  con- 
formity with  such  laws,  and  nothing  herein  shall 
in  any  way  affect  any  right  of  any  state  or  of  the 
federal  government  or  of  any  land  owner,  appro- 
priator  or  user  of  water  in,  to  or  from  any  inter- 
state stream  or  the  waters  thereof.  Provided; 
that  the  right  to  the  use  of  water  acquired  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  appurtenant 
to  the  land  irrigated,  and  beneficial  use  shall  be 
the  basis,  the  measure,  and  the  limit  of  the  right." 

It  is  undoubtedly  a  usurpation  of  power  for 
the  Reclamation  Service  to  interfere  in  any 
way  with  a  settlement  where  the  people  have  an 
irrigation  system  even  though  that  system  is 
not  as  perfect  as  it  might  be  made  by  the  unlim- 
ited use  of  money.  Especially  when  by  the 
exercise  of  such  usurpation  of  power,  property 
rights  are  destroyed  without  just  compensation. 

The  Reclamation  officials  attempted  to  over- 
throw the  Imperial  Canal  system  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  the  settlers  were  compelled  to  sign  a 
document  which  provided,  "We  hereby  band 


ourselves  together  for  mutual  protection  and  agree 
not  to  sign  any  contract  looking  to  the  purchase 
of  water  rights  or  the  transfer  of  any  of  our  rights 
and  interests  until  a  body  of  representatives 
men  selected  by  our  board  of  directors.  *  *  * 
shall  have  secured  a  reasonable  recognition  of 
our  rights  and  an  agreement  with  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  and  shall  have  submitted  the 
same  to  us  with  their  approval." 

The  Imperial  Valley  was  saved  by  this  intelli- 
gent and  vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  her  lead- 
ing citizens. 

It  seems  that  the  Reclamation  Officials  are 
able  to  do  indirectly  that  which  they  are  pro- 
hibited by  law  from  doing.  The  law  cannot 
interfere  with  vested  rights  but  the  officials 
can  destroy  the  value  of  those  rights  and  then 
the  work  is  easy. 


THE    YUMA   CONTROVERSY 

The  people  of  Yuma  are  somewhat  divided  in 
their  sentiments  towards  the  Reclamation  Serv- 
ice. A  very  large  portion  of  them  are  in  open 
sympathy  with  the  Yuma  Valley  Consolidated 
Water  Users'  Association  and  openly  criticise 
the  Reclamation  Service  officials  for  their  course 
in  breaking  faith  with  the  people  and  making 
promises  they  evidently  never  intended  to  ful- 
fill. 

Another  portion  of  the  people  are  still  connected 
with  the  Yuma  County  Water  Users'  Associa- 


MISCELLANEOUS    ARTICLES    AND    STATEMENTS 


41 


tion — the  corporation  formed  through  which 
the  Reclamation  officials  could  treat  with  the 
people.  This  class  of  citizens  find  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  valley  are  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the 
Laguna  Dam  Project  and  cannot  help  themselves. 
They  mostly  keep  quiet  because  they  think  it 
will  do  no  good  to  struggle  under  the  circum- 
stances. 

0.  P.  Bondesson  is  President  of  this  last  named 
Water  Users'  Association  and  is  said  to  be  draw- 
ing a  salary  of  $1000  a  year  for  his  services.  He 
is  endeavoring  to  serve  the  Reclamation  Servcie 
to  the  best  of  his  ability  and  his  name  frequently 
appears  in  print  in  such  defense. 

Following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written 
by  A.  E.  Baldwin  in  response  to  one  of  Mr.  Bon- 
desson's published  articles.  Mr.  Baldwin  is  one 
of  the  victims  of  the  situation  and  speaks  feel- 
ingly. His  letter  appears  in  the  Yuma  Enter- 
prise under  date  of  May  6,  1907,  in  which  he 
says : 

I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  commenting 
on  Mr.  Bondesson's  recent  articles  and  his  posi- 
tion in  defending  the  Reclamation  Service.  He 
has  invited  discussion  and  appears  to  be  willing 
to  instruct  the  yeoman  in  the  mysteries  and 
strange  business  methods  of  this  Service,  having 
shared  in  the  bitterness  of  their  policy  and  wit- 
nessed its  blighting  effects  among  us.  He  has 
not  answered  the  first  and  important  question, 
"Why  the  canals  of  the  valley  have  not  been 
operated  by  the  Service  as  agreed?"  He  is  over- 
flowing with  advice  to  the  farmers  and  wields 
his  big  stick  of  threats  at  the  business  men  of 
Yuma,  who  have  undoubetdly  felt  the  sting  of 
our  poverty  keenly,  resulting  from  the  unkept 
promises  of  the  Reclamation  Service.  This 
anesthetic  of  patience  and  plausible  promises 
has  been  worked  to  its  limit,  it  fails  to  produce 
crops  and  stay  the  encroachments  of  the  desert. 
It  is  water  we  want  and  must  have,  and  if  this 
glass  house  of  our's,  of  which  Mr.  Bondesson  is 
so  thoughtful,  does  not  furnish  ample  shelter 
for  its  builders,  the  sooner  this  fact  is  known  and 
the  house  remodeled  to  our  needs,  the  better, 
even  if  in  the  operation  a  few  '"stones'  are  passed 
through  the  windows  of  this  now  useless  struc- 
ture. 

He  persists  in  trying  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  public  from  the  true  issue  to  that  of  un- 
loading the  Ludy  canal  on  the  people,  which  is 
no  part  of  the  controversy,  but  the  greatest  bur- 
den the  people  of  Yuma  valley  have  ever  had  to 
bear,  is  the  destructive  methods  of  the  Recla- 
mation Service  and  his  now  impotent  Associa- 
tion. 

Before  the  Reclamation  Service  meddled  with 
our  water  affairs,  the  country  was  thrifty  and 
prosperous;  all  lines  of  business  in  good  condi- 
tion; farms  were  being  rapidly  developed;  land 
had  advanced  from  a  barren  waste  to  property 


valued  at  from  $25  to  $75  per  acre.  Is  it  con- 
sistent to  call  the  basis  of  such  progress  failures? 
If  we  are  to  make  our  conclusions  from  the  old 
adage,  "by  their  fruits  you  shall  know  them," 
then  the  word  "success"  should  be  written  in 
capital  letters  opposite  these  old  canal  com- 
panies, and  "inefficiency"  opposite  the  present 
management. 

You  had  better  quit  trying  to  sand-bag  these 
old  canals,  as  you  bring  to  the  minds  of  the  people 
their  former  prosperity,  grown  and  fostered  under 
their  influence.  These  canals  had  never  been 
viewed  as  a  "physical  and  financial  failure"  until 
they  had  been  thus  branded  by  the  jealous  en- 
gineers of  the  Reclamation  Service. 

Mr.  Bondesson  can  well  afford  to  recommend 
patience  and  pocketing  our  losses  and  disappoint- 
ments, while  he  is  filling  and  nursing  a  useless 
position  at  a  salary  of  $1,000  a  year,  but  this  is 
poor  consolation  for  those  who  are  driven  from 
their  homes  by  the  policy  of  the  Service  he  is 
defending. 

We  traded  horses  up  the  road  of  progress,  ex- 
changing one  that  was  serving  our  purpose  fairly 
well,  for  a  larger  and  apparently  more  service- 
able one  but  "balky,"  and  he  instead  of  advanc- 
ing, is  backing  our  homes  into  the  desert. 

Mr.  Bondesson's  articles  are  well  worded  and 
lengthy,  but  hungry  affairs,  when  we  are  in 
search  of  information  or  argument  in  defense 
of  his  position.  His  lamentations  for  the  people, 
remind  us  of  a  paid  mourner  at  a  funeral. 


A  BRIEF  REVIEW  OF  THE  SITUATION. 

R.  H.  Theilman  President  of  the  Yuma  Valley 
Consolidated  Water  Users  Association  in  reply 
to  a  letter  published  by  0.  P.  Bondesson  who 
speaks  for  the  Reclamation  service  says : 

"Now,  what  are  the  issues  before  the  people 
of  this  valley?  We  have  virtually  mortgaged 
our  homes  and  our  property  to  get  irrigation 
water  upon  our  land.  That  was  nearly  three 
years  ago.  We  were  promised  assistance  in  keep- 
ing the  existing  canals  in  good  condition  while 
the  work  was  going  on,  to  enable  us  to  become 
our  own  supply  producers,  and  to  enable  us  to  get 
a  larger  quantity  of  land  in  shape  to  receive  the 
government  water  when  it  arrived.  The  levee 
was  to  be  completed  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment.  The  difficult  problem  of  the  Gila 
crossing  was  to  receive  the  most  serious  and 
judicious  attention.  Common  sense  and  scien- 
tific forethought  would  say  that  this  was  a  prac- 
tical program.  How  has  it  been  carried  out? 

Not  one  cent  of  assistance  from  our  mortgage 
secured  money  has  been  devoted  to  help  main- 
tain the  already  existing  water  supply.  Even 
the  well  defined  promises  of  the  Reclamation 
Service  were  denied  and  ignored.  Even  the 
water  appropriated  by  the  canals  under  the  Terri- 


42 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


torial  law  was  declared  to  be  illegally  obtained, 
In  lieu  of  any  beneficial  work,  what  has  been  done? 
Three  or  four  sets  of  "preliminary"  surveys  at  an 
expense  that  would  three  times  over  have  put 
the  canals  in  shape  to  prepare  the  valley  for  re- 
ceiving the  government  water. 

The  levee  has  been  completed  in  part,  and 
just  at  the  critical  juncture,  when  settlers  were 
beginning  to  take  advantage  of  its  protection, 
the  force  of  workers  was  transferred  beyond  the 
river  to  work  for  those  not  under  the  Reclama- 
tion Service,  and  the  result  is  that  the  hard  pressed 
farmer  of  our  valley  has  seen  his  crops  of  waist- 
high  barley  ruined  by  the  flood  let  in  at  the  gap 
left  by  the  incompetence  of  our  should-be  pre- 
servers. 

The  Gila  crossing  has  not  been  touched;  and 
by  the  way  the  funds  are  being  reduced  the 
question  arises:  Will  it  ever  be  reached  before 
the  funds  are  exhausted?  Arid  when  we  ap- 
proach the  task  of  the  tunnel  through  the  mesa, 
which  is  to  carry  all  the  water  for  the  lower 
valley,  we  reach  a  phase  of  the  real  issues  that  we 
fear  will  tax  even  the  ponderous  capacity  of  Mr. 
Bondesson  as  a  straw  man  smasher. 

Let  us  get  at  the  real  situation,  as  expressed 
in  the  following,  found  in  the  last  clause  of  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's  message  on  the  Colorado  River, 
January  12,  1907:  "If  Congress  does  not  give 
authority  and  make  adequate  provision  to  take 
up  this  work  in  the  way  suggested,  it  must  be 
inferred  that  it  acquiesces  in  the  abandonment 
of  the  work  at  Laguna  and  of  all  future  attempts 
to  utilize  the  valuable  public  domain  in  this  part 
of  the  country."  Senator  Flint's  bill  contained 
the  President's  recommendations  and  was  de- 
feated. Did  the  President  mean  what  he  said? 
If  he  did,  where  do  we  stand? 


SETTLERS  DON'T  RUSH  IN. 

The  Irrigation  Age  in  its  issue  of  May,  1907, 
in  reviewing  the  practical  workings  of  the  Recla- 
mation Act  says: 

Recent  developments  under  the  reclamation 
law  tend  to  show  that  a  grave  error  was  made 
in  omitting  from  that  law  some  provision  which 
would  assist  in  colonizing  the  areas  under  differ- 
ent government  works  throughout  the  West. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Truckee-Carson 
Project,  which  was  completed  last  }rear,  and  was 
extensively  advertised  as  the  first  project  opened 
up  under  the  reclamation  law,  is  not  receiving 
the  attention  of  homeseekers  which  its  soil, 
climatic  conditions  and  wyater  supply  warrant. 
This  work  was  well  advertised  through  the  maga- 
zines of  the  country  all  of  which  gave  it  unusual 
prominence  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first 
project  completed  under  this  law,  and  it  was 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  no  difficulty  would 
be  encountered  in  colonizing  the  area  under  the 
canal.  Varying  conditions  have,  however,  left 


this  project  with  fewr  settlers  and  a  serious  prob- 
lem confronts  the  government  in  the  matter  of 
a  return  of  the  money  expended  on  this  work, 
which  under  the  law  was  to  be  used  for  other 
works,  as  it  was  paid  in  by  the  settlers,  at  the 
rate  of  10  per  cent  annually  on  the  cost  of  each 
acre  reclaimed. 

It  is  very  evident  that  where  there  are  no 
settlers  and  where  money  is  not  turned  back  to 
the  government  as  was  anticipated  under  the 
law,  serious  criticism  may  be  brought  out  against 
the  law  itself,  and  unless  some  provision  is  made 
whereby  this  money  is  returned  to  the  Recla- 
mation Service  for  use  on  new  projects,  the  whole 
enterprise  is  liable  to  be  discredited  by  a  scrut- 
inizing public. 


CONGRESSMAN  SMITH  SPEAKS. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Imperial  Daily  Standard 
contributes  an  article  to  that  paper  under  date 
of  February  20,  1907,  from  which  he  quotes  from 
Congressman  Smith  as  follows: 

"A  new  system  of  canals  will  be  built  and  La- 
guna dam  will  be  a  part  of  it.  The  cost  will  be 
$8,000,000  and  possibly  twice  that. 

"Payments  heretofore  made  for  Water  rights 
will  not  be  credited  on  the  cost  of  the  new  sys- 
tem. 

"Desert  entrymen  will  not  get  water  rights 
for  more  than  160  acres  each. 

"Non-resident  land  owners  will  not  get 
water  rights  at  all. 

"Probably  no  patents  will  be  issued  until 
the  new  works  are  completed." 

To  sum  up,  Mr.  Smith  says:  "No  priority  in 
the  use  of  water  is  recognized.  It  is  quite  clear 
that  if  the  present  system  is  cast  aside  and  the 
appropriation  of  water  is  not  utilized  the  water 
rights  which  the  farmers  have  thought  they  owned 
will  vanish.  The  first  point  to  be  decided  by  the 
land  owners  is'whether  or  not  they  want  to  lose 
what  they  have  spent  for  water  rights  and  canals 
and  start  all  over  again  to  pay  for  a  new  and 
very  expensive  system." 


IRRIGATION    IN   AMERICA. 

During  the  four  past  years  the  irrigation  area 
of  the  United  States  has  increased  1,704,889 
acres.  At  present  there  are  in  this  country 
thousands  of  miles  of  canals,  representing  a  vast 
expenditure  of  money  and  labor,  arid  carrying 
water  upon  more  than  8,000,000  acres,  which 
are  producing  each  year  crops  wrorth  $100,000,- 
000.  This  area  of  artificial  productivity  is  more 
extensive  than  the  combined  area  of  Massachu- 


MISCELLANEOUS    ARTICLES    AND    STATEMENTS 


43 


.setts  and  Connecticut,  and  it  is  never  disturbed 
by  drouths  or  other  uncertainty  of  the  weather. 
All  this  is  in  an  arid  or  semi-arid  region  in  the 
West  which,  a  short  while  ago  was  looked  upon 
as  a  worthless  desert.  —  Statement  published  in 
1905. 


ACCUSED  OF  KNOCKING. 

The  Imperial  Daily  Standard  of  March  22, 
1907,  answers  back  an  attack  from  the  Yuma 
Mouthpiece  of  the  Reclamation  Service  in  the 
following  vigorous  style: 

"O.  P.  Bondesson,  president  of  the  Yuma 
Water  Users'  Association,  in  an  article  in  the 
Yuma  Sun,  charges  the  Standard  with  knocking 
Yuma  valley  by  its  comments  on  the  faulty  con- 
struction of  Laguna  dam  and  the  engineering 
problems  which  the  government  is  confronting 
in  its  project. 

The  Standard  is  free  to  admit  that  if  Imperial 
valley  was  not  in  a  degree  menaced  by  the  La- 
guna project,  it  would  be  better  that  the  facts 
in  the  case  should  not  be  developed  by  an  Im- 
perial valley  newspaper. 

The  facts  are,  however,  that  seeing  the  straits 
facing  the  government  project,  men  whose  repu- 
tations are  connected  with  that  project  are  re- 
sorting to  desperate  means  to  coerce  Imperial 
valley  into  sharing  the  burden  of  that  project 
and  thus  save  it  from  impending  disaster. 

When  these  men  have  discovered  that  their 
:schemes  are  impossible  of  fulfillment  and  that 
this  valley  is  determined  to  remain  absolutely 
free  from  entanglement  with  the  government 
project  and  these  men  cease  to  work  against  this 
valley,  the  Standard  will  no  longer  consider  it 
its  duty  to  expose  the  frailty  of  the  government 
project. 

Possibly  Mr.  Bondesson  can  assist  in  calling 
off  the  government  dogs  which  have  been  bark- 
ing so  lustily  at  Imperial  valley  and  which  are 
still  following  their  old  practice." 


VESTED  RIGHTS. 


The  Act  of  Congress  of  June,  1902,  providing 
for  the  reclamation  of  arid  lands,  in  Section  8, 
provides:  "That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be 
construed  as  affecting  *  *  *  *  any  vested 
rights  acquired  thereunder,  and  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  in  carrying  out  the  provisions  of 
this  Act  shall  proceed  in  conformity  with  such 
laws." 

W.  A.  Richards,  Commissioner  of  the  Land 
Office  in  a  letter  to  the  Register  and  Receiver 


of  the  Land  Office,  located  at  Tucson,  Arizona, 
under  date  of  March  13,  1903,  quotes  from  a  letter 
written  by  Chas.  D.  Walcott,  Director  of  the 
Geological  survey,  while  discussing  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Irrigation  Land  and  Improvement 
Co.  for  right  of  way  for  canal  and  reservoir  of 
the  Ludy  Canal  System  as  follows:  "If  this 
project  were  carried  out  and  canals  were  con- 
structed the  parties  would  acquire  a  vested  right 
to  the  use  of  a  considerable  amount  of  the  water 
of  the  Colorado  River,  and  such  rights  wrould 
cause  an  increase  in  the  cost  of  reclamation  of 
these  lands  by  the  Government." 

Under  this  statement  of  fact,  Commissioner 
Richards  denied  the  application  of  the  Irriga- 
tion Land  and  Improvement  Co. 

It  appears,  however,  that  the  Ludy  Canal  was 
practically  built  before  the  Reclamation  Act 
was  passed  and  water  was  being  delivered  through 
it,  to  a  large  number  of  settlers  and  to  a  large 
acreage  of  land,  hence  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior at  a  later  date  was  compelled  to  reverse 
Land  Commissioner  Richard's  and  allow  the  ap- 
plication. 

This  gave  the  company  according  to  Charles 
D.  Wolcott,  director  of  the  Geological  Survey,  a 
vested  right  to  the  use  of  "a  considerable  amount 
of  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River."  In  fact, 
it  gave  the  company  a  vested  right  to  all  the 
water  it  could  carry,  deliver  and  use  for  a  bene- 
ficial purpose  under  its  appropriation. 

But  again  we  quote  from  a  letter  written  by 
Charles  D.  Wolcott,  Director  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  to  J.  E.  Ludy,  under  date  of 
January  7,  1904,  in  which  he  says:  "As  a  gen- 
eral proposition  it  can  be  stated  that  the  depart- 
ment will  not  under  any  circumstances  attempt 
to  take  possession  of  vested  rights  or  of  any 
property  which  may  be  needed  without  making 
due  compensation  therefor." 

And  yet  the  Department  went  to  work  delib- 
erately to  destroy  the  value  of  property  that  had 
cost  a  half  million  of  dollars,  so  as  to  get  it  out 
of  the  way  of  the  Reclamation  Service  program, 
in  face  of  the  fact  that  it  had  a  vested  right  in 
the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River. 


WILL  THE  LAGUNA  DAM  PROJECT   BE 
COMPLETED? 

President  Roosevelt  in  his  message  to  Congress, 
January  12,  1907,  regarding  the  Salton  Sea  dis- 
aster, recommended  that  Congress  make  an  ap- 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF   GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


propriation  to  be  used  in  controlling  the  waters 
of  the  Colorado  River.  He  concluded  his  mes- 
sage with  the  following  very  suggestive  sentence: 

"If  Congress  does  not  give  authority  to  make 
adequate  provision  to  take  up  this  work  in  the 
way  suggested,  it  would  be  inferred  that  it  ac- 
quiesces in  the  abandonment  of  the  work  at  La- 
guna  and  of  all  future  attempts  to  utilize  the 
valuable  public  domain  in  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try." 

Senator  Flint  of  California  introduced  a  bill 
to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  President.  It 
passed  the  Senate  without  opposition  but  when 
it  reached  the  House,  it  was  sidetracked  and  the 
program  as  outlined  by  the  President  was  aban- 
doned. 

The  question  now  naturally  arises,  "Will  the 
Laguna  Dam  project  be  continued  to  comple- 
tion or  will  the  administration  conclude  to  let  the 
work  stop?" 

Evidently  the  President  concluded  when  send- 
ing that  message  to  Congress  that  if  the  Colorado 
River  was  not  controlled,  the  Laguna  Dam  would 
not  stand,  and  that  if  it  was  controlled  by  any 
other  power  than  the  one  which  contemplated 
the  consolidation  of  the  Imperial  Settlement 
with  the  Laguna  Dam  project,  the  burden  of 
this  project  would  be  too  great  to  be  shouldered 
by  so  small  an  acreage  and  that  ruin  therefore 
would  overtake  the  settlers  in  the  Yuma  Valley. 

It  seems  to  be  a  settled  fact  now  that  the 
Colorado  River  has  been  controlled  by  the  Cali- 
fornia Development  Company  with  a  prospect 
that  a  move  will  be  .made  to  have  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  unite  in  making  that  control 
more  solid  and  permanent. 

It  is  also  now  definitely  understood  that  the 
Imperial  Valley  settlers  will  never  consent  to 
place  that  Valley  under  the  control  of  the  Recla- 
mation Service  as  at  present  constituted  and 
under  the  policy  now  being  enforced. 


poration.  This  Board  of  Governors  issued  an 
address  to  the  people  entitled  "National  Irriga- 
tion— Why  you  should  favor  it." 

This  address  was  issued  under  direction  of  the 
Reclamation  officials  and  made  statements  and 
promises  to  the  people  that  were  authorized  by 
such  officials. 

Here  are  some  of  them: — 

"Nothing  but  a  dam  across  the  river  forming 
a  stupendous  settling  basin  which  will  taker 
perhaps,  a  hundred  years  to  fill  with  earth  will 
obviate  this  difficulty.  [The  silt  problem]. 
And  the  Government  is  preparing  to  build  the 
dam." 

"A  canal  taken  from  the  top  of  a  60  or  80  foot 
dam  would  water  all  the  mesa,  add  thousands 
oi  homes,  more  thousands  of  inhabitants  and  an 
immense  amount  of  business  of  every  kind.  It 
would  transform  the  desert  to  a  paradise,  build 
a  city  and  give  every  modern  comfort  and  con- 
venience to  the  people." 

They  made  their  plea  under  a  promise  of  a 
"60  or  80  foot  dam"  but  finally  concluded  to 
build  an  eleven  foot  dam.  It  was  going  to  take 
a  hundred  years  to  fill  the  reservoir  with  silt 
but  they  are  content  with  a  reservoir  that  can 
be  filled  with  silt  in  a  few  days. 

Again,  they  put  down  the  cost  of  the  system 
in  the  following  figures: 

"Canal  built  by  the  Government  for  the  people 
— no  profit  exacted. 

First  ten  years,  160  acres  water  rights  signed 
for  at  $15  per  acre,  actual  cost,  say,  $10  peracrer 
$1600.  Water  at  $1  per  acre  for  ten  years,  $1600 
Total  expense  for  10  years  $3200.  *To  be  paid 
in  ten  equal  payments.  Out  of  debt." 

After  the  first  ten  years  the  cost  of  water  is 
estimated  at  75  cents  per  acre  per  year. 

What  are  the  facts?  Instead  of  costing  $10 
per  acre,  it  was  conceded  before  work  was  com- 
menced that  the  cost  would  be  $40  per  acre,  and 
now  the  system  is  costing  twice  as  much  as  ex- 
pected, which  will  raise  the  price  to  $80  an  acre 
and  the  end  is  not  yet.  Eight  times  the  original 
estimate. 


MISREPRESENTATIONS   BY  THE   RECLAMA= 
TION  SERVICE  OFFICIALS. 

When  the  Reclamation  Service  Officials  com- 
menced the  work  of  reclaiming  the  Yuma  Valley 
— ninety  pe-  cent,  of  which  was  in  private  owner- 
ship— they  formed  the  Yuma  County  Water 
Users  Association,  composed  of  the  men  who 
owned  land  to  be  irrigated  by  the  Laguna  Dam 
Project.  This  Association  chose  a  Board  of 
Governors  to  transact  the  business  of  the  cor- 


CRITICISE  RECLAMATION  SERVICE. 

Under  the  above  heading  the  Imperial  Daily 
Standard  treats  the  movement  now  being  made 
to  hold  a  Convention  that  shall  insist  upon  a, 
careful  investigation  of  the  work  being  done  by 
the  Reclamation  Service  officials.  The  Standard 
says: 

An  effort  is  being  made  to  hold  a  conference 
preceding  the  National  Irrigation  Congress  at 


MISCELLANEOUS  ARTICLES  AND  STATEMENTS 


45 


Sacramento  to  express  criticism  of  the  recla- 
mation service  and  demand  that  it  be  investi- 
gated and  evil  features  be  corrected. 

In  the  newspaper  articles  being  published  to 
this  end,  an  editorial  from  the  Standard  criti- 
cising the  service  is  being  widely  quoted. 

This  paper  has  at  no  time  hesitated  to  criti- 
cise the  reclamation  service  for  the  attitude  it 
has  shown  toward  Imperial  valley,  and  it  has 
nothing  to  withdraw  from  what  it  has  said. 

But  with  all  the  criticism  which  the  service 
has  merited  and  has  received,  the  Standard  does 
not  believe  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  good 
policy  to  organize  warfare  on  the  service,  and  it 
is  not  believed  this  movement  has  that  in  view. 

The  politicians  who  have  managed  that  de- 
partment of  government  have  failed  in  many 
important  particulars  to  rise  to  the  level  desired. 
The  hard  and  fast  rules  which  have  governed  the 
service  have  unfitted  it  to  meet  the  full  needs 
of  the  time. 

But  what  this  valley  arid  all  arid  America 
wants  is  constructive,  and  not  destructive  work. 
If  the  reclamation  service  has  failed,  criticism  of 
it  should  take  the  form  of  improving  the  service. 

The  fact  that  grave  mistakes  have  been  made 
does  not  change  the  fact  that  the  reclamation 
of  the  arid  public  lands  is  the  greatest  work  of 
internal  improvement  in  which  any  government 
ever  engaged. 

In  putting  forth  energy  in  the  criticism  of  the 
service,  the  West  cannot  afford  to  show  the 
evils  that  have  been  developed  without  at  the 
same  time  pointing  the  way  to  better  service  in 
the  future. 

The  activity  of  the  reclamation  service  was 
designed  to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  unset- 
tled country,  while  much  of  the  most  essential 
work  is  in  sections  that  are  at  least  in  part  in- 
habited. 

In  attempting  to  apply  its  methods  to  settled 
communities,  the  service  has  wrought  great 
hardships. 

A  little  ordinary  common  sense  demands 
that  either  the  practices  of  the  service  shall  be 
broadened  to  fit  all  conditions  or  that  additional 
governmental  organization  be  worked  out  for 
those  great  tasks  for  which  the  reclamation 
service  is  not  adapted. 

Thought  bestowed  on  this  line  can  do  great 
good  for  the  cause  of  irrigation,  while  an  on- 
slaught on  the  reclamation  service  without  sug- 
gestion of  improvement  can  do  only  lasting 
harm. 

The  signers  of  the  call  and  the  Standard  fully 
agree  as  to  the  mode  of  proceedure.  It  is  not 
proposed  to  oppose  the  policy  of  the  government 
in  its  work  of  reclaiming  its  arid  lands  but  to 
insist  that  the  Reclamation  Service  shall  keep 
within  the  spirit  of  the  law  and  if  necessary  to 
have  that  law  so  modified  as  to  avoid  some  of 
the  evils  regarding  which  complaints  are  so 
justly  made. 


SECRETARY    GARFIELD'S    PERSONAL    REP= 

RESENTATIVE  VISITS  THE    IM= 

PERIAL   VALLEY. 

The  Imperial  Daily  Standard  of  June  7,  1907, 
gives  out  the  following  statement: 

"Engineer  Grunsky,  personal  representative 
of  Secretary  Garfield  of  the  Interior  Department, 
is  in  the  valley  on  a  mission  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance. 

It  is  nothing  less  than  to  find  a  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  problem  of  permanent  control 
of  the  Colorado  River  by  the  government  out- 
side of  the  Reclamation  Service. 

Mr.  Grunsky,  who  is  one  of  the  most  eminent 
engineers  in  the  country,  does  not  hesitate  to 
let  it  be  known  that  he  considers  the  Reclamation 
Service  illy  adapted  to  handle  the  Imperial 
Valley  problem. 

This,  he  holds,  is  true  because  the  valley  is 
too  far  advanced  to  fit  into  the  reclamation  pro- 
ject, and  because  the  Reclamation  Service  now  has 
in  hand  all  the  work  for  which  funds  are  available. 

Believing  this,  Mr.  Grunsky,  has  been  sent 
here  by  Secretary  Garfield  to  go  over  the  local 
situations  carefully,  and  report  on  the  situation 
and  the  proper  solution  of  the  problems. 

The  details  of  Mr.  Grunsky's  project  are  not 
known  in  full  but  they  include  a  treaty  with 
Mexico  whereby  the  United  States  can  enter  on 
Mexican  land  to  control  the  Colorado  river, 
and  to  secure  a  direct  appropriation  from  Con- 
gress for  this  work. 

This  implies  the  control  of  the  Colorado  in 
the  same  way  other  rivers  are  controlled,  and  it 
is  not  believed  that  Mr.  Grunsky's  project  im- 
plies placing  the  burden  of  this  work  on  the 
people  of  Imperial  valley. 

This  is  about  what  the  people  of  the  valley 
thought  was  intended  last  winter  when  Congress 
was  called  on  for  an  appropriation  to  control 
the  river.  That  was  followed  by  interference 
by  the  reclamation  service,  which  sought  to  force 
this  valley  against  its  will  and  at  the  destruction 
of  all  the  work  that  had  been  done,  under  the 
general  reclamation  scheme.  According  to  that 
program  the  valley  wrould  have  been  forced  to 
pay,  not  only  for  its  own  work,  but  for  the  La- 
guna  dam,  which  it  does  not  need. 

The  work  done  by  the  California  Development 
Co.  last  winter  has  given  the  valley  temporary 
security,  and  yet  it  is  recognized  that  there  is 
need  of  still  greater  work  to  make  it  certain 
that  there  will  never  be  a  repetition  of  the  break 
in  the  river. 

In  seeking  a  solution  of  the  financial,  politica 
engineering   and   economic    problems   related    to 
the  control  of  the  Colorado,  Mr.  Grunsky's  mission 
is  one  of  the  first  importance." 


46 


UNFRIENDLY   ATTITUDE   OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA    VALLEY 


IS    THE    RECLAMATION    ACT    UNCONSTITU= 
TIONAL? 

The  Irrigation  Age  for  June,  1007  comments 
editorially  on  the  recent  decision  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  touching  the  water  con- 
troversy between  the  States  of  Kansas  and  Colo- 
rado as  follows: 

Witliin  the  past  month  western  papers  have 
devoted  considerable  space  to  the  decision  of  the 
United  States  supreme  court  as  handed  down  in 
opinion  of  Justice  Brewer  in  the  Kansas-Colorado 
case.  The  suit  was  brought  by  the  state  of  Kan- 
sas to  restrain  the  citizens  of  Colorado  from  di- 
verting the  waters  of  the  Arkansas  river  for  pur- 
poses of  irrigation,  the  complainant  alleging  that 
numerous  irrigation  ditches  in  Colorado  had  so 
reduced  the  volume  of  water  as  to  render  a  once 
navigable  stream  almost  dry;  to  diminish  the 
manufacturing  power;  to  lower  by  about  5  feet 
the  surface  of  the  stream  and  entirely  cut  off 
water  for  irrigation  in  western  Kansas.  The 
reply  of  Colorado  was  that  it  had  exclusive  right 
to  the  waters  flowing  through  the  state,  and  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  the  navigability  of  the  Ar- 
kansas at  any  time. 

The  decision  of  the  court  is  essentially  a  vic- 
tory for  the  defendant  state,  although"  it  was 
found  that  the  flow  of  water  into  Kansas  had 
been  diminished,  and  that  portions  of  the  Ar- 
kansas river  valley  had  suffered.  To  more  than 
offset  this  loss  is  the  fact  that  the  diversion  of  the 
waters  has  transformed  large  areas  of  Colorado's 
lands  from  barren  wastes  to  fertile  fields.  The 
amount  of  water  which  Colorado  may  use,  how- 
ever, is  limited  and  the  suit  is  dismissed  "without 
prejudice  to  the  right  of  the  plaintiff  to  institute 


new  proceedings  whenever  it  shall  appear  that 
through  a  material  increase  in  the  depletion  of 
the  waters  of  the  Arkansas  by  Colorado  its  cor- 
porations or  citizens,  the  substantial  interests 
of  Kansas  are  being  injured  to  the  extent  of  des- 
troying the  equitable  apportionment  of  benefits 
between  the  two  states  resulting  from  the  flow 
of  the  river" 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  decision, 
however,  is  the  intimation  that  the  national 
reclamation  act,  under  which  the  government 
is  now  spending  some  $40,000,000,  is  unconsti- 
tutional. Justice  Brewer  does  not  specifically 
say  so,  but  declares  that  Congress  can  only  legis- 
late in  respect  to  such  matters  as  are  enumerated 
in  the  constitution.  The  power  to  legislate  with 
respect  to  irrigation  of  arid  land  was  not  one  of 
the  enumerated  powers  granted  by  the  constitu- 
tion. The  authority  of  Congress  to  irrigate  its 
own  lands,  or  that  portion  of  the  country  wherein 
the  property  benefitted  is  chiefly  that  owned  by 
the  government,  is  unquestioned.  But,  the 
opinion  holds,  "we  do  not  mean  that  its  (congress ) 
legislation  can  override  state  laws  in  respect  to 
the  general  subject  of  reclamation." 

Of  course  the  decision  opens  the  way  for  suits 
to  be  brought  by  private  corporations  to  restrain 
the  government  from  entering  upon  irrigation 
projects  which  might  interfere  with  private  un- 
dertakings. In  fact  one  such  suit  is  now  pending 
—that  brought  by  ex-Senator  Turner  of  Wash- 
ington on  behalf  of  an  Arizona  company  to  res- 
train the  government  work  on  the  Colorado 
river  so  that  the  corporation  may  use  the  water 
for  irrigation  purposes  in  California.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  Twin  Falls  company  in  Idaho 
will  bring  a  similar  suit,  as  there  is  prospect  of  a 
conflict  between  the  government  and  private 
enterprise  along  the  Snake  river. 


General  H.  G.  Otis  on  Laguna  Dam 


General  Otis  of  the  Los  Angeles  Times,  having  been  rriticisd  by  a  member  of  the  Reclamation 
Service  for  the  unfriendly  attitude  of  his  paper — The  Los  Angeles  Times — towards  the  Laguna  Dam 
project  and  other  works  of  the  Reclamation  Officials,  writes  an  explanatory  letter  to  a  friend  in 
Phoenix,  Arizona  which  is  published  in  full  in  the  Phennix  Republican  of  July  27,  1907,  We  extract 
the  following: — 


What  the  Times  has  published  in  regard  to 
the  Laguna  darn  has  been  published  in  good 
faith,  without  malice,  and  for  justifiable  ends. 
The  enterprise  is  a  great  and  costly  one,  but  it 
is  not  above  criticism;  the  engineers  of  it,  even 
if  they  be  engaged  in  the  reclamation  service 
of  the  government,  are  not  above  criticism;  and 
being  a  government  enterprise,  the  manner  in 
which  the  work  has  been  done  is  open  to  the  ani- 
madversions of  the  intelligent  engineers  and 
other  critics  whose  conclusions  we  have  published. 

It  is  well  and  widely  known  that  the  Times 
supported,  during  years  and  years,  the  projects 
of  the  reclamation  service  on  the  great  Colorado 
river  of  the  west,  and,  in  fact,  throughout  the 


entire  arid  region.  The  paper  has  been  fore- 
most in  that  regard.  It  was  only  after  mat- 
ters arose  in  connection  with  that  service  which 
were  properly  the  subject  of  public  criticism  that 
the  Times  exploited  the  defects  and  the  defi- 
ciencies in  the  construction  of  the  Laguna  dam 
which  have  been  alleged  by  engineers  and  others 
not  connected  with  the  government  project.  It 
is  also  true  that  the  attitude  of  some  of  the  recla- 
mation officials  became  at  one  time  adverse  to- 
wards the  Imperial  enterprise,  which  the  Times 
has  always  encouraged.  Naturally,  criticisms 
were  made  on  that  account  also.  For  this 
course  I  do  not  feel  called  upon  to  make  either 
apology  or  excuse. 


The  Los  Angeles  Times   on  the  Call  for  the 
Irrigation  Convention 


On  the  llth  of  July  after  the  call  for  the  Irrigation  Convention  to  meet  at  Sacramento,  Cali 
fornia,  on  the  31st  day  of  August,  1907,  had  been  signed  by  the  Yuma  Valley  Water  Users  Associa- 
tion, the  Los  Angeles  Times  reviewed  the  situation  in  the  following  forcible  article  endorsing  the 
move  being  made  calling  for  a  vigorous  investigation  of  the  Reclamation  Service  by  the  Government. 


IRRIGATORS  AGGRIEVED 

Serious  charges  against  Reclamation  Service — 
Convention  of  dissatisfied  settlers  called — Yuma 
Valley  accusations  of  dishonesty. 

An  investigation  of  some  of  the  operations  of 
the  Reclamation  Service  is  urged  by  settlers  of 
Yuma  Valley,  who  have  issued  a  call  for  a  con- 
vention of  water  users,  to  meet  in  Sacramento 
on  August  31,  two  days  before  the  opening  of  the 
National  Irrigation  Congress,  for  the  purpose 
of  considering  the  shortcomings  of  the  service 
and  preparing  a  petition  to  the  President.  The 
call  is  signed  by  the  officers  of  the  Yuma  Valley 
Consolidated  Water  Users'  Association  and  fif- 
teen settlers,  and  purports  to  express  the  views 
of  a  majority  of  the  settlers  along  the  Colorado 
River. 

It  is  charged  by  these  men  that  the  Recla- 
mation Service  made  false  representations  to  the 
settlers  in  the  valley  in  order  to  secure  their  sig- 
natures to  contracts  mortgaging  their  homes  to 
the  government  for  an  unknown  amount,  and 
that  the  estimated  cost  of  the  irrigation  works 
to  be  constructed  was  grossly  misrepresented. 
The  estimated  cost  of  the  Laguna  dam  was  $900,- 
000,  and  J.  G.  White  &  Co.  took  the  contract  to 
build  it.  After  expending  $600,000  of  govern- 
ment money  and  $320,000  of  their  own,  the  firm 
was  permitted  to  surrender  the  contract  without 
penalty,  the  plant  was  turned  over  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  the  Reclamation  Service  is  going 
on  with  the  work,  which  was  only  half  done  when 
J.  G.  White  &  Co.  abandoned  it. 

It  is  asserted  that  the  completed  dam  will 
cost  nearly  $2,000,000,  and  that  the  siphon  under 
the  Gila,  the  Yuma  tunnel  and  the  distributing 
canals  will  bring  the  total  cost  of  the  project  up 
to  the  equivalent  of  $70  or  $80  per  acre  of  land 
under  the  system.  This,  it  is  charged,  practic- 
ally covers  the  entire  value  of  the  property  mort- 
gaged, leaving  no  equity  to  the  settler,  and  be- 


cause of  the  discouraging  prospects  people  are 
leaving  the  Yuma  Valley,  nearly  one-half  of  the 
irrigated  land  has  been  deserted  and  the  valley 
is  reverting  to  the  desert. 

DISHONESTY  ALLEGED 

The  Yuma  Valley  settlers  make  the  specific 
accusation  that  Reclamation  Service  officials 
positively  agreed  that  the  government  wrould 
purchase  two  of  the  canal  systems  that  furnished 
water  to  the  farmers,  and  operate  them  pending 
completion  of  the  government  system;  that  a 
contract  for  the  purchase  of  the  Farmers'  Canal 
was  made  and  approved  by  Secretary  Hitch- 
cock, but  was  repudiated  later,  and  the  settlers 
were  told  that  the  government  would  neither 
purchase  nor  operate  the  canal.  It  is  charged, 
also,  that  the  Reclamation  officials  agreed  to 
purchase  a  pumping  plant  for  $6000;  that  their 
action  was  approved  by  Secretary  Hitchcock; 
that  a  deed  to  the  property  was  executed  and  de- 
livered on  explicit  assurance  that  the  money 
would  be  paid;  that  the  officials  retained  the 
deed  for  twro  years  and  then  placed  it  on  record, 
and  on  June  1,  1907,  demanded  possession  of  the 
property,  although  the  purchase  price  still  re- 
mains unpaid. 

The  signers  of  the  call  for  a  convention  of  ag- 
grieved irrigators  say: 

"We  are  firm  believers  in  the  wisdom  and  ef- 
ficiency of  the  Reclamation  Act  passed  by  Con- 
gress and  signed  by  President  Roosevelt  in  1902, 
provided  that  such  act  can  be  honestly  adminis- 
tered in  the  interests  of  the  people. 

"We  believe  that  President  Roosevelt  desires 
to  have  that  act  honestly  administered,  but  as 
yet  we  have  been  unable  to  reach  his  official  ear 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  him  to  order  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  abuses  which  could  be  so 
easily  unearthed  here  in  this  valley  by  a  com- 
petent commission. 

"We  are  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  this  same 
Reclamation  management  endeavored  to  get 


4S 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS   YUMA  VALLEY 


control  of  or  destroy  the  irrigation  system  of  the 
Imperial  Valley,  even  to  the  extent  of  publicity 
declaring  on  the  streets  of  Imperial,  that  it  might 
be  necessary  to  turn  the  Imperial  Valley  back  to 
desert  again  in  order  to  accomplish  their  purpose. 

"We  are  creditably  informed  that  the  settlers 
under  the  various  other  reclamation  systems 
have  been  treated  in  a  manner  very  similar  to 
the  treatment  to  which  our  settlers  have  been 
subjected." 

"Therefore  we  ask  that  all  settlers  under  the 
reclamation  projects  and  all  those  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  reclamation  of  the  arid  lands  of 
America,  and  those  who  sympathize  with  such 
settlers,  take  an  interest  in  seeing  that  they  are 
properly  represented  in  the  National  Irrigation 
Congress  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  Sacramento, 
Cal.,  from  the  2nd  to  the  7th  of  September,  1907." 

IMPERIAL  VALLEY'S  GRIEVANCE. 

The  unfriendly  attitude  of  officials  of  the  Rec- 
lamation Service  toward  the  Imperial  Valley 
is  treated  at  length  in  a  pamphlet,  compiled  and 
published  by  an  Imperial  newspaper.  It  is 
shown  that  those  officials  have  "knocked"  the 
valley  and  the  work  of  the  California  Develop- 
ment Company  persistently  for  years.  They 
pronounced  the  soil  of  the  valley  worthless  and 
reported  that  it  would  not  germinate  seed;  they 
obstructed  in  every  way  possible  the  irrigation 
project  for  reclamation  of  the  valley;  they  de- 
•  clared  it  impossible  to  check  the  runaway  Colo- 
rado with  a  rock-fill  dam;  and  they  did  their  ut- 
most to  induce  the  government  to  confiscate  the 
valley  lands  and  attach  them  to  the  Yuma  pro- 
ject to  save  that  scheme  from  financial  failure. 

A  BELATED  KNOCKER. 

As  late  as  April,  1907,  after  the  break  in  the 
river  had  been  closed  and  the  security  of  the  pro- 
tective works  built  by  the  Southern  Pacific  had 
been  established,  L.  C.  Hill,  supervising  engineer 
of  the  Reclamation  Service,  published  an  article 
full  of  .  misrepresentations  of  the  work  of  the 
California  Development  Company,  in  which  he 
•"predicted"  the  failure  of  efforts  already  success- 
ful, and  again  urged  that  the  Imperial  Valley 
be  turned  over  to  the  Reclamation  Service.  Ex- 
tracts from  Engineer  Hill's  article  are  given  in 
the  pamphlet,  with  these  comments: 


"The  falsification  of  facts  which  this  eminent 
political  engineer  uses  as  the  warp  and  woof  of 
readible  fiction  shows  the  animus  of  the  article. 
It  is  the  old,  old  story  of  desperate  determination 
of  the  service  to  coerce  Imperial  Valley  into  com- 
ing to  its  relief  and  thus  saving  the  Laguna  dam 
project  from  becoming  the  most  gigantic  engineer- 
ing failure  in  the  history  of  the  West. 

"He  failed  to  speak  of  the  farmers  below  Yuma, 
where  the  farmers  were  beginning  to  prosper  and 
the  cultivated  area  was  spreading  rapidly  until 
the  blighting  touch  of  the  so-called  Reclamation 
Service  fell  upon  them,  and  the  land  relapsed 
to  desert,  and  the  wrecked  farmers  packed  their 
few  belongings  in  wagons  and  moved  on  to  seek 
a  land  where  there  was  no  government  bureau 
ready  to  sand-bag  them  and  rob  them  of  their 
last  dollar. 

"There  is  no  more  pathetic  story  in  all  the  wild 
West  than  this,  heard  almost  wherever  the  Rec- 
lamation service  has  obtained  a  foothold,  of  the 
ruin  and  absolute  desolation  brought  to  the 
irrigated  farms  by  the  politicians  sent  out  in  the 
name  of.  reclamation  for  the  ostensible  object  of 
making  the  wilderness  to  bloom,  but  in  reality 
to  draw  fat  salaries  for  their  incompetent  service, 
willing  to  sow  desolation  where  they  expected 
to  plant  homes,  if  only  their  big  salaries  roll  on 
in  endless  procession." 

CHANGES  DEMANDED. 

Yuma  and  Imperial  valleys  will  be  repre- 
sented in  the  Irrigation  Congress  and  in  the  con- 
vention of  dissatisfied  settlers  at  Sacramento,  and 
doubtless  the  mistakes  of  the  Reclamation  Service 
will  be  dealt  with  vigorously.  In  the  words  of 
the  Yuma  call: 

"It  is  proposed  to  place  before  this  convention 
a  proposition  to  memorialize  the  President  to 
order  a  thorough  examination  of  the  Reclama- 
tion Service,  to  the  end  that  the  facts  of  the  case 
may  be  made  public;  that  such  changes  may  be 
made  in  the  personnel  of  the  service  as  the  facts 
may  require  and  that  proper  restrictions  may  be 
placed  upon  the  service  and  proper  rules  adopted 
by  the  government  for  its  guidance  that  will 
give  the  public  confidence  in  this  great  work  of 
reclaiming  our  arid  lands  and  making  homes  for 
American  citizens  and  their  families." 


Call  for  an  Irrigation  Convention. 


The  following  call  for  an  Irrigation  Convention  to  meet  in  Sacramento,  Califor= 
nia,  on  Saturday  August  31,  1907,  to  consider  matters  connected  with  the  work  of  the 
Reclamation  service  was  published  in  circular  form  and  sent  to  about  500  newspapers 
in  the  arid  West  and  it  was  also  sent  to  leading  members  of  the  Irrigation  Congress, 
many  United  States  officials  and  others. 


To  the  friends  of  Reclamation  of  arid  lands  through- 
out the  arid  regions  of  the  United  States: — 

The  undersigned,  representing  the  wishes  and 
expressing  the  sentiment  of  a  majority  of  the 
settlers  along  the  Colorado  River;  located  under 
the  flow  of  the  Laguna  Dam  Irrigation  Project 
now  being  built  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, being  dissatisfied  with  the  management  of 
the  Government  Reclamation  Service  officials, 
ask  you  to  co-operate  with  them  in  an  attempt 
to  remedy  the  evils  complained  of. 

The  Reclamation  offiicials  induced  the  owners 
of  land  under  the  proposed  Laguna  Dam  Irriga- 
tion System  to  sign  away  their  property  rights 
and  interests  by  false  promises  and  misrepresen- 
tations, and  because  of  this  we  have  banded  our- 
selves together  for  self  protection,  and  have 
formed  the  YUMA  VALLEY  CONSOLIDATED 
WATER  USERS'  ASSOCIATION,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  protecting  our  rights  and  getting  justice 
at  the  hands  of  the  Government. 

We  charge  and  can  prove  that  the  Reclama- 
tion Service  made  false  representations  to  the 
settlers  in  the  Valley  in  order  to  secure  our  signa- 
tures to  a  contract  whereby  we  have  mortgaged 
our  homes  to  the  Government  for  an  unknown 
amount,  and  that  the  estimated  cost  of  the  irri- 
gation works  to  be  constructed  were  grossly 
misrepresented. 

We  charge  that  J.  B.  Lippincott  and  his  as- 
sociates representing  the  Government  estimated 
that  the  Laguna  Dam  would  cost  about  $900,- 
000;  that  a  contract  to  construct  the  dam  was 
made  with  a  responsible  firm;  that  after  doing 
a  large  amount  of  work  that  firm  surrendered 


its  contract  sustaining  a  loss  of  about  $320,000; 
that  up  to  the  present  time  there  has  been  paid 
out  on  the  work  of  construction  about  $920,000, 
of  which  amount  $600,000  was  paid  by  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  remainder  was  the  loss  sus- 
tained by  the  contractor;  that  the  work  at  this 
point  was  about  half  done.  Thus  the  dam  when 
completed  will  have  cost  nearly  $2,000,000,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  syphon  under  the  Gila  River, 
the  tunnel  through  the  Yuma  mesa  and  the  dis- 
tributing canal  system  to  irrigate  the  87,600 
acres  of  land — the  total  cost  of  which  it  is  now 
believed  will  aggregate  not  less  than  $70  or  $80 
per  acre. 

We  charge  that  the  said  J.  B.  Lippincott  posi- 
tively agreed  on  behalf  of  the  government  that 
it  would  purchase  two  of  the  canal  systems  that 
furnished  water  to  the  farmers  of  the  Valley  and 
to  operate  the  same  pending  the  construction  of 
the  Government  systems — thus  furnishing  the 
Valley  farmers  with  water  to  save  our  crops  and 
homes;  that  this  was  done  as  an  inducement  in 
securing  the  signatures  of  the  settlers  to  the  con- 
tract placing  our  lands  under  the  irrigation  sys- 
tem to  be  constructed,  and  that  the  Reclamation 
Service  officials  have  declined  to  make  good  their 
promises. 

We  charge  that,  acting  under  the  advice  and 
direction  of  the  Reclamation  Service  officials, 
the  Yuma  Valley  Water  Users'  Association — 
a  creature  of  the  Reclamation  Department, — 
contracted  with  the  owners  of  the  Farmers  Canal 
to  purchase  that  system  at  a  cost  to  be  deter- 
mined but  in  no  event  to  be  less  than  $30,000; 
that  the  system  was  estimated  as  being  worth 


50 


UNFRIENDLY  ATTITUDE  OF  GOVERNMENT  TOWARDS  YUMA  VALLEY 


about  $75,000  based  on  the  actual  cost  of  con- 
struction; that  'the  system  was  in  debt  to  the  ex- 
tent of  $30,000,  hence  the  minimum  price  fixed 
in  selling  the  system  to  the  Government;  that 
this  indebtedness  was  guaranteed  by  resi- 
dents of  the  Valley  and  the  settlers  in  selling  de- 
sired to  protect  these  men  who  had  risked  their 
property  interests  in  order  to  build  up  and  de- 
velop the  resources  of  the  Valley;  that  the  build- 
ing of  the  Laguna  Dam  system  would  absolutely 
ruin  this  canal  property  because  the  settlers 
under  that  system  had  signed  up  to  help  pay  for 
and  to  take  water  from  the  Governmental  sys- 
tem under  the  agreement  that  the  old  system 
was  to  be  purchased  by  the  Government  and 
operated  by  the  Government  pending  the  con- 
strnction  of  the  new  system;  that  officials  of  the 
Reclamation  Service  afterwards  reported  that 
such  contract  had  been  approved  by  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  Hitchcock;  that  still  later  the  con- 
tract was  repudiated  and  the  settlers  were  told 
that  the  Government  would  neither  purchase 
nor  operate  the  Farmers  system. 

We  further  charge  that  the  Reclamation  of- 
ficials also  agreed  to  purchase  a  pumping  plant 
that  furnished  water  to  settlers  owning  a  large 
acreage,  paying  therefor  the  sum  of  $6,000,  and 
that  such  action  was  approved  by  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  Hitchcock;  that  the  owners  of  the 
plant  executed  a  deed  conveying  such  property 
to  the  Reclamation  Service,  which  deed  contained 
the  usual  clause  acknowledging  the  receipt  of 
the  purchase  price,  and  tendered  it  to  the  Recla- 
mation officials  .asking  for  the  payment  of  the 
$6,000;  this  amount  the  officials  promised  to  pay 
and  the  owners  parted  with  the  deed  with  the 
explicit  assurances  that  the  money  would  be  paid, 
but'  the  officials  failed  to  pay  the  money  ,and 
after  retaining  possession  of  the  deed  for  about 
two  years,  they  placed  the  deed'  on  record  and, 
on  the  1st  day  of  June,  1907,  demanded  possess- 
ion of  the  property,  although  the  purchase  price 
was  still  unpaid.  Possession  was  not  given,  by 
advice  of  attorneys. 

We  also  desire  to  represent  that,  because  of 
the  misrepresentations  made  by  the  Reclama- 
tion officials,  and  their  dishonest  treatment  of  our 
settlers,  people  are  leaving  our  valley  in  large 
numbers,  and  that  nearly  one  half  of  the  irrigated 
land  has  been  deserted,  and  the  land  is  going  back 
to  desert  conditions  again. 

We  further  state  that  a  petition  signed  by  307 
of  our  settlers  has  been,  sent  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  at  Washington,  asking  for  relief, 
but  as  yet  getting  none. 


The  cost  of  the  Laguna  Dam  irrigation  system 
now  promises  to  be  so  great  that  it  practically 
covers  the  entire  value  of  the  property  mort- 
gaged, so  that  there  is  no  equity  left  if  the  settler 
desires  to  move  out  and  leave  his  property. 

We  are  firm  believers  in  the  wisdom  and  ef- 
ficiency of  the  Reclamation  act  passed  by  Con- 
gress and  signed  by  President  Roosevelt  in  1902, 
provided  that  such  act  can  be  honestly  adminis- 
tered in  the  interests  of  the  people. 

We  believe  that  President  Roosevelt  desires 
to  have  that  act  honestly  administered,  but  as 
yet  we  have  been  unable  to  reach  his  official  ear 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  him  to  order  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  abuses  which  could  be  so 
easily  unearthed  here  in  this  Valley  by  a  com- 
petent commission. 

We  are  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  this  same 
Reclamation  management  endeavored  to  get 
control  of  or  destroy  the  irrigation  system  of  the 
.Imperial  Valley  even  to  the  extent  of  public 
declaring  on  the  streets  of  Imperial  "that  it 
might  be  necessary  to  turn  the  Imperial  Valley 
back  to  desert  again  in  order  to  accomplish  their 
purpose." 

We  are  credibly  informed  that  the  settlers  under 
the  various  other  reclamation  systems  have 
been  treated  in  a  manner  very  similar  to  the 
treatment  to  which  our  settlers  have  been  sub- 
jected. 

Therefore  we  ask  that  all  settlers  under  the 
various  Reclamation  Projects  and  all  those  who 
are  interested  in  the  Reclamation  of  the  arid 
lands  of  America  and  those  who  sympathize 
with  such  settlers  take  an  active  interest  in  seeing 
that  they  are  properly  represented  in  the  Na- 
tional Irrigation  Congress  to  be  held  in  the  City 
of  Sacramento,  California,  from  the  2nd  to  the 
7th  of  September  1907. 

In  order  that  all  such  delegates  may  have  an 
opportunity  to  confer  with  each  other  and  dis- 
cuss the  vital  questions  in  which  we  are  all  in- 
terested and  take  appropriate  action  regarding 
the  subjects  discussed,  we  hereby  invite  all  such 
delegates  who  believe  that  the  Reclamation  Serv- 
ice should  be  thoroughly  investigated  by  the 
Government,  with  a  view  to  correcting  the  evils 
complained  of  in  this  call,  to  meet  in  conven- 
tion in  the  City  of  Sacramento,  California,  on 
Saturday  August  31,  1907  at  10  o'clock  a.  m. 

It  is  proposed  to  place  before  this  convention 
a  proposition  to  memorialize  the  President  to 
order  an  examination  of  the  Reclamation  service, 
to  the  end  that  the  facts  of  the  case  may  be  made 


CALL  FOR  IRRIGATION  CONVENTION 


51 


public;  that  such  changes  may  be  made  in  the 
personnel  of  the  service  as  the  facts  may  require, 
and  that  proper  restrictions  may  be  placed  upon 
the  service  arid  proper  rules  adopted  by  the  Gov- 
ernment for  its  guidance  that  will  give  the  public 
confidence  in  this  great  work  of  reclaiming  our 
arid  lands  and  making  homes  for  American  citi- 
zens and  their  families. 

We  also  ask  that  steps  be  taken  at  such  con- 
vention to  place  the  entire  question  before  Con- 
gress if  such  course  shall  be  deemed  expedient. 
The  convention  will  also  be  competent  to  con- 
sider such  other  questions  connected  with  this 
subject  as  may  be  brought  up  for  consideration 
and  to  take  such  action  as  the  merits  of  the  case 
may  dictate. 

YUMA  VALLEY  CONSOLIDATED  WATER 
USERS'  ASSOCIATION. 

By  R.  H.  Thielman,  President, 

By  James  H.  Hobbs,  Director 

By  C.  E.  Yarwood,  Director 

By  Joe  Williams,  Director 

By  Thomas  Lyall,  Director 
Endorsed  by  the  following  Settlers: 
Thomas  L.  Despiars          W.  C.  Despiars 
Geo.  W.  Crane 
M.  Morris 
Henry  Bandy 
R.  D~  Breedlove 
J.  G.  Barklev 


John  Syverson 


J.  B.  Marrs 
E.  L.  Crane 
Robt.  Sexsmith 
A.  E.  Baldwin 
M.  B.  Fair 
J.  C.  Jones 
T.  A.  Jordan 


Dated  at  Yuma,  Territory  of  Arizona,  this  15th 
clay  of  June,  1907. 

The  undersigned,  without  reference  to  the 
particular  charges  made  against  the  officials  of 
the  Reclamation  Service  by  the  Yuma  Valley 
Consolidated  Water  Users'  Association,  unite 
in  the  above  call  for  the  proposed  convention, 
believing  that  a  conference  of  all  parties  interested 
in  the  questions  would  result  in  good  to  the 
service. 

I.  W.  Gleason,  President  Imperial  Water  Com- 
pany No.  1. 

Peter  P.  Hovley,  President  Imperial  Water 
Company  No.  4. 

R.  T.  Perry,  President  Imperial  Water  Com- 
pany No.  6. 

Imperial  Land  Company,  by  F.  C.  Paulin, 
President. 

California  Domestic  Water  Company,  Wm.  C. 
Learmont,  Secretary,  Whittier,  Cal. 

Lem  Allen,  St.  Clair,  Nevada. 

J.  B.  Verplank,  St.  Clair,  Nevada. 

We,  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the 
"ROUND  VALLEY  WATER  USERS'  ASSO- 
CIATION," DO  HEREBY  ask  that  the  CON- 
VENTION be  called,  and  that  certain  evils  and 
injustice  that  have  been  imposed  upon  the  peo- 
ple in  the  name  of  "Reclamation"  be  investigated 
and  corrected,  ;i,nd  for  this  call  we  hereunto  set 
our  hands  and  seals. 

GEO.  A.  CLARKE,  President. 
Attest: 

FRED  R.  SMITH, 

Secretary. 


Imperial  Valley  vs.  Yuma  Valley 


Two  year  old   grape  vine  in  Imperial   Valley, 
graph  taken  June  5,  1907. 


Photo-          Residence  and  ranch  of  Prof.  Yocum — waiting  for  Gov 
ernment  water,  twelve  miles  south  of  Yuma. 


The  Colorado  Flood  of  1907  a  Record  Breaker 


The  Colorado  River  Flood  during  June  and 
July  of  1907  makes  a  new  record  so  far  as  records 
go  in  connection  with  floods  in  this  remarkable 
stream. 

In  order  to  show  the  comparison  in  the  now 
during  the  season  of  1907  as  compared  with  that 
of  1906  the  following  table  is  given  as  taken  from 
the  records  of  the  Geological  Survey.  The 
record  for  the  months  of  June  and  July  are  given 
in  height  of  gauge  and  second  feet,  as  follows: 


June,  1906 


June,  1907 


DAY 


DIBCHA.O, 


1 --28.60 81,800 28.45-  72900 

•_>_-                         -.28.60 84,000 28.90...  76,200 

3 28.80 84,200 29.10..  77,000 

4...         __ -28.60 87,200 29.20-  77,700 

5-._          --28.30 82,400 29.15  77400 

6 27.95 91,100 28.90,. _  87,100 

7 -_-27.60 89,800 28.30...  83,300 

8 -  -27.40 89,000 27.70_  80,100 

9 _  -27.40 86.700 27.25-  77200 

10 -_27.45 85,300 26.85.-  72,200 

11_-          --27.30 82,100 26.95-  72,700 

12 27.10.  __  .74,000.  __  .27.  !.">  81800 

13 26.90 65,800 27.45._  86,500 

14 .,26.70 65,000 27.95_  90,400 

15 .-26.75 70,000 28.05  94,400 

16 26.95 80,600 28.25  .  97100 

17 26.95 80,600 28.55...  100,800 

18..-   26.90 80,800 28.85.  __  104,600 

19 26.80 80,400 29.10_  105,900 

20 26.70 80,100 29.15  106  300 

21 26.75 79,800 29.15._.  106,300 

22 26.85 80,400 29.10-..  108,000 

23 27.30 83,000 29.00.  109,500 

24 27.60 91,000 28.90.  _  113,400 

25 -.27.80 96,600 28.85_  114,400 

26 __27.85 96,400 28.75  114700 

27 _.28.10 99,200 28.70._-  114,800 

28 --28.05 97,100 28.60-.  115,000 

29 ..27.85 92,000. ---28.40---  115,400 

30..          --27.30 79,300 28.40 115,400 

July,  1906        July,  1907 

1 - -26.50 74,200 28.30.  _  112,800 

2 25.55 68,000 28.05.  .  111,000 

24.35 60,400 27.55    110,400 

4 23.35 52,200 27,10    109,500 

6...         ...22.85 48,100 27.40 109,500 

6__ _  _22.40 44,600 27.35.  __  107,000 

7..-        22.00 41,900 27.35-  .  107,000 

-  .21.90 41 ,100 27.50-  -     108,100 

9 -.21.85 40,400 27.70.        109,600 

10 -.21.85 39,500. _.    27.XO         110,400 

11--  21.80 38,600 28.05         112,300 

I2i        j_21.53 40,600 28.00          111900 

13—  -.21.40 38,100 28.05 114,100 

21.30 37,400 27.95 112,600 

15-.  --21.10 36,300 27.80 113,900 

16 :_. -20.95 35,400 27.65 113,800 

17 20.95 34,600 27.50 109,500 

18 21. LT)         32,900 27.45 108,800 

19 .21.50         32.(i()0   .__27.10 103,600 

L'O        .__•_.__'__•__  'I'. 21.20          32.-IOO         26.75          101700 


This  record  is  a  most  remarkable  one  and 
teaches  a  valuable  lesson.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
the  highest  water  of  the  season  as  shown  by  the 
gauge  was  on  the  4th  of  June,  when  the  gauge 
marked  29.20,  but  on  that  day  the  flow  of  the 
river  was  only  77,700  second  feet.  Then  the 
flood  apparently  subsided,  so  that  on  the  10th 
of  June  the  gauge  marked  only  26.85 — a  drop 
of  two  feet  and  four  inches,  but  on  that  date  the 
volume  of  water  flowing  in  the  river  had  subsided 
only  a  trifle — the  drop  being  only  to  72,200 
second  feet. 

The  flood  then  increased  again  and  on  the  17th 
of  June  the  gauge  read  28.55  and  the  flow  had 
increased  to  100,800  second  feet.  For  thirty- 
four  days  the  flow  of  the  river  was  above  the 
100,000  second  feet  mark — the  maximum  flow 
being  115,400  second  feet  on  the  29th  and  30th 
of  June,  with  a  gauge  reading  on  the  30th  of  only 
27.30  feet. 

Thus  we  find  that  with  a  gauge  of  29.20  on  the 
4th  of  June,  there  was  a  flow  of  only  77,700  sec- 
ond feet  while  on  the  30th  of  the  month  there 
was  a  flow  of  115,400  second  feet  while  the  river 
gauge  was  only  27.30,  nearly  two  feet  lower  than 
it  was  on  the  day  of  the  highest  water. 

The  Colorado  River  always  cuts  out  its  chan- 
nel in  time  of  a  flood  but  this  year  the  cutting 
process  is  abnormal.  This  is  brought  about  by 
two  causes: 

First:  The  flood  was  the  severest  known  in 
the  history  of  the  river  since  records  were  kept. 

Second:  During  the  season  of  1906,  the  farm- 
ers on  the  Arizona  side  of  the  river  below  Yum  a 
thought  to  protect  their  ranches  by  doing  a  little 
work  on  the  river.  At  a  point  a  few  miles  below 
the  Imperial  Canal  heading,  there  was  a  large 
bend  in  the  river.  This  bend  was  over  three 
miles  around  and  only  about  half  a  mile  across 
the  neck.  They  cut  a  channel  across  this  neck 
and  now  the  entire  river  flows  through  this  chan- 
nel. The  river  has  thus  been  shortened  about 
three  miles  and  hence  to  restore  the  normal  grade 
of  the  stream  this  cutting  process  has  been  very 
heavy  during  the  recent  flood.  This  cutting 
process  probably  had  much  to  do  in  saving  the 
Imperial  dam  as  well  as  the  Yuma  Valley. 

Had  the  stopping  of  the  runaway  river  been 
left  to  the  Reclamation  Service,  it  is  now  ad- 
mitted by  all  who  know  anything  of  the  situa- 
tion that  the  work  would  not  have  been  accom- 
plished and  that  much  of  the  Imperial  Valley 
would  to  day  have  been  under  water  and  that 
there  would  have  been  nothing  for  the  Reclama- 
tion Service  to  do  but  move  out  of  the  Colo- 
rado River  Valley. 


072559 


10887 


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!  ON. 


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